Match Preview:- Wolayita Dicha Vs St George

Ethiopian Premier League 13th week games will be played at Addis Ababa and regional states' stadiums starting tomorrow, Saturday. The Horsemen headed out to Wolayita yesterday to have this week's match. The match will be against Wolayita Dicha tomorrow (Saturday) at 3፡00pm.

St George Vs Wolayita Dicha 2016/17 EPL season!

In 2016/17 EPL, these two teams had their 1st round clash on Saturday, December 24, 2016. It was EPL's 7th week match and took place at Addis Ababa stadium at 3:00 pm.

It was a match St George took on after consecutive winless games. Although, the Horsemen were in a lot of pressure due to the ineffectiveness in their previous matches, it was not as such a difficult one. This is what coach mart Noij at the time side during the post-match press conference. St George won the game by Abubakar's and Adane Girma's goals by 2-0.

The 2nd round match of 2016/17 EPL season was on Saturday, April 08, 2017. It took place at Wolayita Sodo stadium and ended with 1-1 draw. The Horsemen did not play well at this match. Although they did not create much goal opportunities, Adane Girma was able to give the Horsemen the lead at the 42nd min when he chipped the ball he got from defenders' mistake over the goalkeeper's head.

Wolayita Dicha coming back stronger into the 2nd half, got their equaliser at the 49th min from a strong shot outside the box. Although they kept pressing and created goal opportunities, they did not score more goals. Hence, the match ended with 1-1 draw.

Current season's numbers of these two teams!

St George in the current season had 10 matches to win 5 and draw 5. Wolayita Dicha on the other hand, had 12 matches winning 3, drawing 4 and losing 5. Based on this, the Horsemen are the 2nd on the Premier League table collecting 20 pts and Wolayita Dicha is 9th with 13 pts.

Let's discuss Wolayita Dicha first as St George is having this match away!

St George's opponent, Wolayita Dicha, had 5 Premier League matches at home ground in front of its fans. Out of those 5, they won 2, drew 1 and lost 2. The matches won were against Ethio Electric by 2-0 and Arbaminch Kenema by 1-0 proving they are recovering from their poor record.

The match they drew at home was against Diredawa Kenema with 1-1. It is mentioned in the above they lost 2 matches in front of their fans. These matches were against Adama Kenema by 2-1 and Mekelle Kenema by 1-0. Wolayita Dicha, in all the home matches scored 5 and conceded 4 in total.

Wolayita Dicha had 7 away matches in the current season. Out of these 7, they won 1, drew 2 and lost 3. The match they won was against Mekelakeya by 1-0.

They drew against Dedebit with 0-0, Wolwalo Adigrat University with 1-1 and with Ethiopia Coffee with 1-1. Wolayita Dicha in all the 7 away matches scored 4 goals and conceded 7 in total.

St George in the 10 matches they had, scored 13 goals and conceded 2. Wolayita Dicha on the other hand, scored 9 goals and conceded 11 in 12 matches. This makes average of 1.3 goals per game scored by St George and 0.75 by Wolayita Dicha. St George conceded 0.2 goals per game on average and Wolayita Dicha did 0.9.

Wolayita Dicha's Game Plan!

Wolayita Dicha has made a coach change to get out of the futile run they had in the start of the Premier League. The club used to play in 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 styles when they were being coached by Mesay Teferi. Wolayita Dicha under coach Mesay Teferi played many league games building their wall with 3 defenders. But recently, we observed Wolayita Dicha using 4 defenders after bringing coach Zenebe Fisseha. With this, they are being seen implementing 4-5-1 and 4-1-4-1.

Wolayita Dicha builds up its game with the holding midfielder Haymanot Worku, who controls the team's balance and oversees the team's game. Haymanot Worku is good with short passes and his long passes to the midfielders and the centre forward reach their targets.

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When Wolayita Dicha transitions to defence, their strategy is to follow their opponents foot to foot. The players act immediately pressing opponents to make them out of options as if they are assigned to a specific player to each. And putting 5 players between the penalty box and the half line helps them do just that by narrowing the field even more. Recent matches show that Wolayita Dicha has a weakness of losing focus and mistakes by defenders.

Wolayita Sodo stadium, as other regional states' stadiums, is challenging to play building up the ball. We observed the Horsemen being troubled by this over the years. The field which lets the home grounders juggle the ball as their will, puts up much challenge for visitors. Especially, the bumpy area around the penalty box is very difficult for guest teams. Wolayita Dicha players, understanding the pressure this puts on goalkeepers, tries taking advantage of it by having strong shots outside of the box.

Wolayita Dicha's striker, Jako Arafat, is the team's scorer who also creates goal opportunities. His moves with and without the ball is challenging to defenders. Especially, the way he tries to use the ball his team mates cross from the wing is remarkable. And Wolayita Dicha's attacking plan focuses on this player.

Injuries in St George house!

Adane Girma, Alula Girma, Salhadin Seid, Natnael Zeleke, Abel Anbesse and Tadele Mengesha have not recovered fully from their injuries and will not be part of this match. Mintesinot Adane who did not train with the team, due to an illness in the past few days, may play as the team, currently, has no other player in his position.

We will win!
We have full faith in Sanjaw!