Coach Mdluli upbeat over Reserve Team
16 October 2014
Maritzburg United Reserve Team coach Siya Mdluli is convinced that the Multichoice Diski Reserve League is of huge benefit to Maritzburg United.
After losing their opening three matches, The Team of Choice’s Reserve Team side picked up their first points of the season on the weekend when they beat Ajax Cape Town 2-1 and drew 1-1 with Bloemfontein Celtic.
Coach Mdluli provided maritzburgunited.co.za with the following report:
“I’m quite optimistic at this point. One must remember that we only started assembling our team two weeks before this competition started, and that the first team had also had a lot of changes to the side.
"Apart from the first game versus SuperSport, I feel the players have performed very well, and I can see a constant improvement.
This was shown on the weekend. Against Ajax we could have had four or five goals before half time, although we went on to win 2-1. I was happy with the overall showing from the team, especially taking into consideration that for three youngsters this was their first game.
“Against Celtic, Celtic scored first within the opening five minutes and then we had a player sent off in the first half. We lost another player to a second yellow card on 65 minutes. So we were down to nine men, but we still managed to fight back and score an equalizer with a great solo goal [by Sandile Dlamini]. This suggests the team is in good shape, it showed our conditioning is paying off.”
The passionate and hard-working Mdluli then explained how the Reserve Team is run:
“It’s made up of players from the development side, as well as some first team players that are not regularly making the first 18, or that are coming back from injury and need game time. I refer regularly with head coach Steve Komphela and I attend the First Team training sessions every morning, and then train the Reserve Team in the afternoon. I try and use similar methodologies so that there is consistency in place, making it easier for a player to transition to the first team.”
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