Struggling Maritzburg eager to plug leaky defence
KURT Lentjies has evolved into one of Maritzburg United’s senior statesmen and is aware of the difficult situation the club finds itself in.
They have an opportunity to turn things around tonight against Jomo Cosmos in a last 16 Telkom Knockout Cup clash at the Harry Gwala Stadium.
Teams often have games which they identify as a turning point, but Lentjies said it is something that should be applied with each fixture. Maritzburg United have yet to win a game this season and their biggest weakness has been their defence. They have conceded 19 goals in seven matches in all competitions.
“There are no easy games so I wouldn’t say this fixture comes at the right time as people are suggesting. We tried to turn things around against Aces and that didn’t work. We tried the same thing against Free State Stars and also that didn’t work. It was the same against Bloemfontein Celtic and we didn’t get the required result,” said Lentjies.
“Defending starts at the top and because we are leaking goals doesn’t mean that we now have to point fingers at Virgil Vries, the back four and the two defensive midfielders. It all starts at the other end of the field once the goalkeeper takes a kick. That’s when we start defending and we haven’t been doing that as a unit so we can’t point fingers.”
Jomo Cosmos have not been a model of consistency either, but they have been a better defensive unit than Clive Barker’s struggling team.
Cosmos though have not been able to score goals and they are far from the flowing team that once went toe-to-toe against Kaizer Chiefs at the turn of the century when the Knockout Cup had a different sponsor.
They are an ultra defensive team who usually aim to scrape a league point, but Cup football will force them to find goals.
However, they don’t look above parking the bus for 120 minutes in the search for the penalty shootout lottery.
Lentjies knows the teams are the weakest in the league at the moment but feels Cosmos should not be underestimated despite their attacking bluntness.
He also said it was time for senior players to take responsibility and give the junior players something tangible to look up to. The team of choice will be without the suspended Thamsanqa Mkhize and Zolile Luthuli while Kwanda Mngonyama seems to have shrugged off a nagging ankle injury.
“We played them at the start of our league campaign and that was a goalless draw but this is a Cup game and there needs to be a winner. Each team will be looking to get a victory out of the game and also get a much needed confidence boost going into further league clashes,” said Lentjies.
“As senior players, we are here to motivate the younger players at the moment. They’re new in the game and they don’t know what it’s like to go through this. I’ve been here before and it’s our job as senior players to keep them motivated because we also draw our energy from them but there’s no need to panic.”