DYNAMOS coach Genesis Mangombe says his club will raid the transfer market for a new striker as the team’s struggles in front of goal persist.
The Harare giants were on Sunday held to a goalless draw by Manica Diamonds at Sakubva Stadium, their ninth draw in 16 league games this term.
The visitors failed to find the net despite creating the better of the chances.
Mangombe, whose future hangs in the balance following a spate of poor results, admitted that his striking department has let the team down.
Reports yesterday suggested that the Manica Diamonds match could be Mangombe’s last match as the Dynamos top hierachy was ready to pull the trigger on the former Yadah coach.
“We need to get composed in front of goal and that means we need to find a good finisher,” Mangombe said after the Sunday match.
“We are playing well, but at the end of the day, if you are not scoring goals, then we are going nowhere. We will try to work on that department and look for a striker when the transfer window opens.”
The transfer window opens next week.
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Mangombe signed Namibian Sadney Urikhob at the start of the season to provide the needed goals, but the striker has been a total disaster, scoring once so far.
Young Alexander Mandinyenya, who also arrived at the start of the season, is struggling to find his feet at DeMbare, while Elton Chikona, who was the league’s Rookie of the Year in 2023, has failed to build on his promising season last year.
Eli Ilunga, a proven striker who scored almost a dozen goals before he moved to the Glamour Boys from Black Rhinos last season, has surprisingly been shunted out of the team.
He was not in the travelling squad on Sunday.
Mangombe has often relied on Emmanuel Paga to provide the goals, but the Ghanaian has only scored three goals to top the club’s scoring charts this term.
“The statistics show that the strikers have not done their job. We have played a lot of games and we are not scoring enough goals. We have trusted these players, but they are not hitting the nets. Their job is to score goals,” Mangombe said.
He said the club had identified a number of potential signings to deal with the scoring problems.
“We are looking at a few names that we are talking to. We are trying our best to convince the players to come and play for the Glamour Boys. We are looking for players from the local league and from outside the country.”
Dynamos are one of the lowest scoring teams this season, netting 13 goals in 16 games.
Only five other clubs in the league have scored fewer goals than Dynamos this season.
Three of them Hwange, Arenel Movers and Chegutu Pirates are in the relegation zone and the other two Bulawayo Chiefs and ZPC Kariba — are floating just above the danger zone.
Sunday’s result saw Dynamos drop to ninth on the log standings.
Mangombe’s men are closer to the relegation zone than they are to the leading teams.
With 21 points, Dynamos are 13 behind log leaders FC Platinum and six above Yadah, who occupy the relegation cut-off point.
“It’s quite unfortunate that we didn’t win because I thought this was one of the games we should have won. But this has been the story of our season so far, drawing matches which we should have won easily,” Mangombe said.
“What we need now is players with character, who can put the ball in the back of the net. We created numerous chances, better than the opponent, but at the end of the day, we didn’t score. We also picked some positives because our defence was solid.
“There was a lot of energy from [Tendai] Magwaza and [Donald] Dzvinyai as well as [Emmanuel] Jalai. We managed to contain their speedy forwards, and that is a positive for me.”
Manica Diamonds remained on second position with 31 points, three behind FC Platinum.
Ngezi Platinum Stars moved to third position with 27 points after they notched their fifth straight win of the season with a 2-1 win over Herentals.
Striker Obriel Chirinda scored the winner in the game, his second in two matches since he was cleared to play for the club.
Simba Bhora complete the list of teams in the top four.
Highlanders and Caps United are on fifth and sixth, respectively, after they both returned to winning ways at the weekend.
Highlanders scrapped past Hwange, while William Manondo scored a brace for Caps United to beat Chegutu Pirates in a match that had stoppages due to crowd trouble.
