Baxter laying groundwork for next season
JEREMY BROCKIE was very honest in his assessment of why SuperSport United have struggled this season, which led to the sacking of coach Gordon Igesund and the appointment of Stuart Baxter.
“You can have as much quality and talent in the squad as you want, but if you’ve got no direction or you aren’t pulling together as a team and you’re going out there as individuals on the day then positive results are not going to come,” Brockie said. “That’s what the coach is bringing to us. He is tactically setting us up a lot better.”
The 1- 0 victory that Matsatsantsa scraped against Moroka Swallows at Dobsonville Stadium on Tuesday showed just how deep the club’s problems are. Under pressure they have shown disunity. That’s why the club has lacked spark, which has seen them languish in 11th place despite their formidable squad. Their body language shows how much they’re desperate to get this season over so that they can start planning for next season.
“I want to put down as much groundwork as I can. A bit of the groundwork for SuperSport is that they have had a season where they think they can do better,” Baxter said.
“One of the reasons (for that) is I think that when things don’t go perfectly, they have a little bit of a mental panic and they reverse to playing individually. You can’t be a top team when you only play individually. You have to have a structure, know what to do as a good teammate and then your individual flair will come through and help the team.”
Baxter’s biggest challenge in their eight remaining matches in the PSL as well as Nedbank Cup where they advanced to the last 16 after beating the Dube Birds, is getting the team to play consistently well for 90 minutes. One of the things he has done at the club is to move Jeremy Brockie from playing as the leading forward to using him as a “shadow striker” just like he did with Bernard Parker at Chiefs.
“He (Brockie) is dangerous from that No 10 position because he is more difficult to mark,” Baxter said. “If he is standing on the shoulders of defenders, he doesn’t have the blistering pace to go behind them, so he has to use his intelligence. Brockie will be the player for us for the rest of the season.” – Njabulo Ngidi