COACH ERNST WELCOMES THE SLIGHT RESPITE TO PSL SCHEDULE
25 January 2021
Maritzburg United head coach Ernst Middendorp plans to make it a productive week as he looks to get his players ready for next Saturday's KwaZulu-Natal DStv Premiership derby against Golden Arrows.
United's positive run of form in January unfortunately came to an end this week with back-to-back defeats against TS Galaxy and Orlando Pirates.
Add in the 0-0 draw against AmaZulu and it was three matches in a week for the Team of Choice.
Looking back at the most recent game, a 1-0 defeat to Pirates, Middendorp said he was not happy with the first half showing, but did find a few positives from the second half against Bucs.
"In the second half we were competitive and had better dominance," he stated.
"Our options were not on 100 percent level. But I believe if we had shown a little bit more drive in the final third, in terms of decision making in terms of the final consequence...there were two or three moments, we could have done better to get probably the equaliser," Middendorp continued.
"I will not complain about the second half - we tried, we put ourselves onto the front foot, attacking movement, controlled the defensive line quite effectively. Here and there a breakthrough is normal."
Now looking ahead to the derby at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Durban, coach Ernst plans to make full use of the week he has at his disposal.
"We must move into the week to really find solutions to get the number of players into sharpness and into the level where they can really put the skills in," he said.
"We have a full week to recover, to use the first three days or so to work out the process, our recovery time... A number of knocks and a number of players out with injuries. We have to see what's possible and under the circumstances it's very important we have a week in front of us."
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