Kadodia’s gamble on Fadlu pays off
Davids drills Maritzburg United into a formidable foe
● Fadlu Davids (36) is a very serious, focused and no-frills guy.
Some of Davids’ peers, mostly those he started playing professional football with, are still chasing their last contracts. Davids, on the other hand, sounds like a stalwart, more like a mentor who has amassed years and years of experience in the dugout.
Perhaps Davids’ take on life is the reason he has already attracted so many admirers, with his hard-working approach to the game. In his debut season as head coach of Maritzburg United — taking the unheralded Team of Choice to the cusp of their best season in the PSL — his influence on his team has not gone unnoticed.
Davids refuses, though, to take all the credit for his team occupying third place on the log with six matches to go. He points to the maturity, quality and class of his young players, and to fitness trainer Burger van der Merwe and his assistant coach and younger brother Mahier as people who deserve credit for putting the team where it is.
“It’s not a one man, Fadlu Davids show,” he insists. “It’s a collective of what we have done as a team so far. We haven’t achieved anything yet, but there are a lot of encouraging signs.”
Last season, with the help of Davids as caretaker coach, Maritzburg had their best finish yet, ending the season in seventh position.
It wasn’t always looking this bright
This season the team was unlucky not to progress to the final of the MTN8 but they’re still in with a chance of cup glory as they host Bloemfontein Celtic in the last eight of the Nedbank Cup at the Harry Gwala Stadium on Saturday.
But everyone, including club chairman Farouk Kadodia, agrees it wasn’t always looking this bright for Maritzburg.
Davids stepped in as head coach at the start of the current campaign.
At the very end of last season the club found itself in a spot of bother, with a couple of experienced players, including captain Kurt Lentjies, leaving for greener pastures. Also absent was a head coach.
But instead of panicking, Kadodia showed faith in one of their own — Davids, the striker who had joined the club in 2007 and retired at 32 in January 2012 before embarking on schooling himself while also assisting Ernst Middendorp at Maritzburg and Celtic.
“It came around February in 2017 with the parting of coach Roger de Sa and Fadlu taking over as the interim coach. He managed to steer the team to a seventh-place finish and after that we were confident enough to promote Fadlu to the head-coach position at the start of the 2017-18 season,” said Kadodia.
“It was a calculated gamble but we always had confidence in Fadlu because he came through our ranks. He knows the club inside out, having been with us as a player since 2007.
“I’m quite confident that Fadlu has a long road ahead of him because he is dedicated to his craft and is a hard worker.”
By June next year Davids would have completed his Uefa A coaching licence, adding to the other licences he’s already armed himself with, something many of his age can only dream about.
“I knew I could do the job. It was a matter of time,” gushed Davids, who is the youngest of head coaches in the PSL this season.
When Davids was handed the reins his mandate was ensuring constant finishes in the top eight, with a long-term view of attracting sponsorship and growing the team’s support.
“If we can get rid of that relegation tag and continue to play the brand of football we are playing, then sponsors will want to be associated with us,” reckons Davids.
Consistency is one of the attributes you quickly notice when you follow what Davids is doing at Maritzburg — a team with littleknown players with an average age of 23.
You can’t second guess whether he’s going to start with Ghanaian goalkeeper Richard Ofori or his skipper Bevan Fransman, who is leading a defence that normally has a rejuvenated Siyanda Xulu, Bandile Shandu and Pogisho Sanoka.
Without Siphesihle Ndlovu, Deolin Mekoa, Fortune Makaringe and Lebohang Maboe, with Mohau Mokate and the Belgian Andrea Fileccia leading the attack, it wouldn’t look like Davids’ team.
Davids highlighted Makaringe’s role, the anchorman in his midfield, calling the player more of an organiser than a midfield destroyer.
“He used to be left winger, right winger and an attacking midfielder,” said Davids of the versatility of Makaringe.
“We converted him to be this organising midfielder, playing in a deeper role. We always tell him that we don’t have a defensive midfielder but we have an organising midfielder. He’s definitely a modern midfielder and he’s key to our machinery.”
When Maritzburg went eight games without victory between September and November, questions were raised about Davids’ future given the precarious position the club was sliding into.
Did Kadodia regret his decision to throw Davids in at the deep end?
“The reality is, unlike other coaches, I knew the capabilities of Fadlu,” said Kadodia. “What was needed was to identify the problem that resulted in us scoring only one goal in those eight matches. We identified the issues that we needed to correct and eventually we turned the corner.”
The reality is, unlike other coaches, I knew the capabilities of Fadlu Farouk Kadodia Chairman of Maritzburg United
Davids said that for him that spell caused no panic because “it was at the time we played our best football this season”.
“We shouldn’t forget that in that period we played against Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates and that we also tragically lost Mlondi Dlamini, at the age of 20, in a car crash on October 9.
“It’s not an easy situation to lose one of your up-and-coming stars of the season at such a crucial time.”
But come December and things started to look better for Davids and his team as they collected seven points from a possible 12 — the only major setback being a narrow 1-0 away defeat to log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.
January turned out to be the best month for Davids as they continued to turn on the magic, winning three matches out of five, including the 4-0 and 3-0 victories over Bloemfonten Celtic and Free State Stars, home and away respectively.
Sadly for Fadlu, the end of January was also the month the club had to let go of their ace striker Evans Rusike, who had given them a point in his last match against Chippa United before being signed by SuperSport United, ironically the only team Maritzburg lost to in January.
What will rank as some kind of achievement for Davids after the terrific run they’ve had so far?
“Attaining four points will ensure that we finish inside the top eight.
“Anything we get after that will be a bonus. We want to finish as high as possible,” said Davids.