Moses Shumah: Harambee Stars Striker’s Delayed Debut Frustrates AmaZulu Coach

AmaZulu FC coach Arthur Zwane has decried his lack of attacking options with Harambee Stars striker Moses Shumah still not ready to play.

Shumah joined the South African club in July after his prolific scoring single season with Zambian champion Power Dynamos but five games into the new season, he is yet to make his debut.

According to Zwane, Shumah arrived without any pre-season and will need a lot of time to be ready for the Premier Soccer League (PSL).

“Shumah joined us when we had about two weeks left into pre-season. He is far behind…Pule [Hendrick Ekstein] and Shumah are not going to be ready anytime soon,” Zwane said on August 12 after his team’s 1-1 draw with Orlando Pirates. “Right now, we need people to come and help us, and unfortunately, as I said, Shumah last played in May, if I’m not mistaken.”

The unavailability of Shumah and other attacking players has, however, become a source of frustration for the AmaZulu coach as he has lamented lacking other forwards as he has been forced to rely on only one striker.

Zimbabwean striker Thandolwenkosi Ngwenya has taken on the goalscoring burden for the Durban-based club and is currently the leading scorer in the PSL with five goals from four games so far.

But with Shumah and others not ready, Zwane is worried that his overreliance on Ngwenya could prove costly and have an impact on their objectives for the season.

“It’s good to see him scoring goals. The only concern is that it can’t be only him who scores for us. Others also need to take responsibility. You can’t rely on him, because if he gets injured again, then we’re going to have a problem,” said Zwane as quoted by FARPost.

“We’re just hoping that Thando will be available for selection all the time. You must have seen that towards the end of the game [against Mamelodi Sundowns], he started cramping, and that was a warning sign for us.

“Sometimes you want to take him out, but you look at who can give you goals. We don’t have another prolific striker like him at the moment. We do have others, but they’re still coming back because they missed pre-season,” added Zwane, referring to the unavailability of Shumah and co.

It is still not clear when Shumah will be ready to play but Usuthu have coped well without him as they are fourth on the league standings with seven points from four games, three behind joint leaders Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns.