All in good shape for Ertugral’s Bucs
MUHSIN Ertugral’s scientific approach and the impressive technical team assembled by Orlando Pirates this season are behind the Buccaneers looking ultra-sharp already‚ the coach said.
Bucs’ pre-season came with a slick second-half performance in Wednesday night’s 3-1 PSL-opening unravelling of Golden Arrows on the back of Tendai Ndoro’s hattrick at Orlando Stadium.
Afterwards Ertugral acknowledged his back-room staff. The coach has brought in his highly rated fitness trainer Elsa Storm – credited with part of Ertugral’s success steering Mpumalanga Black Aces to their best PSL finish of fourth last season – to work with former Blue Bulls conditioning coach Andre Volsteedt.
It has already had the effect of a quality Bucs squad looking more dynamic than the tired combination that stuttered to a trophy-less seventh-placed finish last season.
Ndoro – in fine form in the last campaign – looked like he has gone to another level.
“I always wanted a technical team like this‚ and I’m really thankful to Mr [Bucs chairman Irvin] Khoza for allowing me to put it together‚” said Ertugral.
“It’s not easy to convince those boys [the players] – because they are stars. But what I like about these boys is that they take it. Because at the moment it comes to 16 hours’ training a week. They have individual workouts.
“With body composition – Tendai is a fast-twitch [sprinter’s] muscle fibre. Other players are different. So we look into each player individually. Then we look at the positional play.
“But this goes back to my technical squad. We have one sports scientist‚ and the [fitness chip] tracking system. Every player is tracked – how many kilometres they run‚ how much power‚ how much speed‚ how much stress factor. And then I have Andre Volsteedt who is an analyst and also a great fitness coach.
“Elsa and he are designing those programmes. I myself am a sports scientist – I studied at the sports science institute in Cologne. We get together and discuss things three or four times a week. And it will be better – it is just a start.”
It took time for Bucs to click against Arrows. In the first half it was the Durban side who had the best of the half-chances.
Once the Bucs got into their stride‚ though‚ their movement and combination play overwhelmed Arrows.
“For the first half you must also say that it is a new ensemble team‚ a new coach‚ new fitness team. A lot of things are new‚ so a team needs to adapt‚” said Ertugral.
“And I am a demanding coach. The whole thing is about how these boys are going to get into it.
“We need to know what we are going to do when we lose the ball. The pattern‚ the organisation. And that split decision sometimes: ‘Must I go‚ must I stay?’.
“These are all elements that will take time. But I think I was pretty happy with the first half. We knew Arrows would have counter-attacks and we needed to be a bit more careful in the buildups – we were a bit too hasty.
“And that hastiness saw them catch us on breaks a few times.
“The point was how long it would take for us to settle. There is a tremendous quality in this team‚ a tremendous work ethic which I have not experienced in SA in a long time.
“And it came together in second half.” — TMG Digital the