AmaZulu’s co-coach Arthur Zwane says they needed to understand the players and resources at their disposal to turn the team’s fortunes around.
Usuthu are enjoying an impressive run of form under Zwane and fellow co-coach Vusumuzi “Kanu” Vilakazi after a rough start to the term. They’ve bagged nine points out of 12 in the last four games as their only blemish was the 1-0 loss to TS Galaxy early this month.
Now, having won their last game on Friday night, beating neighbours Royal AM 2-1 at home courtesy of Hendrick Ekstein and Mlondi Mbanjwa’s goals, Usuthu climbed up on the log. They are now 12th on the Betway Premiership standings with nine points, buying themselves some breathing space from their fellow relegation candidates.
The working relationship between Zwane and Vilakazi has some believing that there’s not only a future for young coaches, but that the co-caches system still works as well.
“10111” and “Kanu” cut their coaching teeth in the reserves, coaching at Kaizer Chiefs and Golden Arrows, before their respective fortunes in the top-flight. But with their last top-flight gigs having ended with being sacked at Chiefs and resignation at Richards Bay respectively, not many believed in their collective coaching abilities.
However, the duo seems to be working fine as co-coaches, leaving their doubters with eggs on their faces especially after the system didn’t yield a lot of success in recent years.
Zwane, though, refused to take credit for their bright start at Usuthu, saying playing to the players’ strengths is what made them succeed. I think knowing myself and coach Kanu, we always look at what we have first. The system to function requires players, and not us,” Zwane explained.
“We just didn’t come to AmaZulu and say, ‘this is how we want to play’. We must look at what we have at our disposal and see how we can improve the players.
“We also needed to allow them to play to their strengths and best of abilities. There are so many qualities in the team, but it’s just about planning and tactical understanding.”
Sure, Zwane is happy with his team’s transformation recently, but he believes that they can’t rest on their laurels especially after nearly allowing Royal AM back in the game at King Zwelithini.
“The players all know what is at stake, and at this level, there’s absolutely no room for mistakes,” Zwane explained.
“Football is a game of mistakes, we know that. And as much as we are still a work in progress, we demand total focus for us to compete irrespective of the position. For a team of AmaZulu’s calibre, we don’t deserve to be in the position that we found ourselves in. The kind of football they played recently made us ask ourselves questions.
“It’s not understandable why we would fight against relegation. But we are still down there, and there was an opportunity to pick ourselves up.”
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Usuthu’s next game will be at home to log leaders and champions Mamelodi Sundowns on Christmas eve. And by then, Zwane insists they must have improved on the training pitch.
“I must give credit to the players for creating the opportunities. But we’ll go back to the drawing board and try to rectify our mistakes,” Zwane explained. “We’ll try to improve our game even though there are a lot of positives that we can take from our game, and performance.”
Meanwhile, coach-less Golden Arrows were brought down to earth by Richards Bay after losing 1-0 in Hammarsdale on Saturday night. Arrows are without a coach after Mabhuti Khenyeza went awol last week, despite the team enjoying a back-to-back winning streak.