Menzo’s pedigree is there, but now hard work begins
NEW Ajax Cape Town coach Stanley Menzo steps into the office for the first time this morning – and, no doubt, there are both positive and negative thoughts swirling around his head. After yet another defeat on Saturday night – 2-0 to SuperSport United – the 53-year-old former Ajax Amsterdam goalkeeper certainly knows he’s taken on a difficult, mammoth challenge.
He won’t have too much time to settle in, though, as Ajax are back in action on Wednesday, when they are in Bethlehem to take on a much-improved Free State Stars in a PSL fixture at Goble Park (6pm kickoff).
Menzo watched from stands when the Urban Warriors lost to SuperSport at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday night. For the new coach, while there was the negativity of another loss, there was also the encouragement of the team’s performance, which was definitely a lot better.
The new Ajax coach is schooled in the “Ajax Way”. He spent most of his career at Ajax Amsterdam and was a member of the Dutch club’s famous squad that won the 1986-87 Cup Winners’ Cup. As a player, he represented the Netherlands at the 1990 World Cup – and, as a coach, he assisted Marco van Basten, who was in charge of the Dutch national team at the 2006 World Cup.
The pedigree is certainly there, but now the hard work begins. And hard work it will be indeed as, at the moment, Ajax can’t even buy a win. Menzo has promised to bring back the famed Ajax possession-based style of play, but even the new coach, experienced as he is, will admit that, right now, winning comes first. The niceties of attractive, entertaining football, based on the Ajax way, can only be re-introduced once the team starts to win again, and once it commences the long, difficult climb up the PSL log.
Assistant coach Mich d’Avray took charge of Ajax for Saturday’s fixture, after the departure of the former head coach, Roger de Sa, last Thursday. Truth be told, despite the defeat, there was much to like about the Cape side’s performance. There was energy, there was heart and, for once, they kept possession, rather than hand the ball back to the opposition, as they had been doing in recent games.
“Sometimes when a team is struggling, you’ll find that players hide, but they didn’t, and that’s a positive. Look, we just have to keep going… But the bottom line is that we have to start picking up points soon. Football is a confidence game and I’m sure that we just need a win or two and things will start moving again,” D’Avray said.
Menzo has only been in the Mother City since April, and was working as Ajax’s Head of Youth. Because of this, D’Avray knows that, as the assistant coach, he still has an important role to play in acquainting Menzo about the ins-and-outs of the PSL.
“Stanley has been here a few months. There has been criticism about the team not playing the ‘Ajax Way’. I won’t say too much about that, except to ask whether we have the personnel for it. But Stanley is from Ajax Amsterdam, and he’ll try to bring that system and style into play. His lack of knowledge of the local game may be a challenge, but there’s enough of us around to assist him.”