The Team of Choice must not lose hope, says Ertugral

MARITZBURG UNITED are looking to do what no other PSL team has been able to do this season, and that is to beat Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus on Wednesday.

The Team of Choice are in disarray at the moment. They are bottom of the league standings with 11 points after 16 games. Maritzburg have only managed to register one victory this season and was against Bloemfontein Celtic back in September under the leadership of Fadlu Davids.

Davids has since been sacked, with Muhsin Ertugral taking up the hot seat. But Ertugral has endured a torrid time in his first two games in charge. Maritzburg lost to Golden Arrows in Ertugral’s first game. That defeat was followed by another loss on Wednesday against Free State Stars.

The Team of Choice are now facing an uphill battle of becoming the first team to beat Sundowns in the league this season. Ertugral knows his team have their back against the wall against Sundowns.

“Sundowns is always tough. I know Sundowns very well. We need to see what kind of approach we will apply when we face them. We need to decide on whether we will be more offensive or defensive or on a counter attack. Those are (the) types of the decisions we need to take,” Ertugral said.

The Brazilians are fourth on the log with 25 points after 13 games. They have won six games and drawn seven.

“All in all when you look at the game that we played against Golden Arrows, we played backward and today (on Wednesday against Stars), I thought it was good, disciplined and organised. We had a chance of scoring the second and the third in my opinion. If we scored the second, it would have been a different story. In our situation at the moment it doesn’t fall for us, but it falls for the opponents. There’s still a lot of hope. We mustn’t lose hope. We need to start winning games,” Ertugral said.

Maritzburg have really endured a barren run in front of goal this season. They have only netted six goals in 16 league matches. Maritzburg have acquired the services of Judas Moseamedi on loan from Cape Town City. They will be hoping that he will make a difference in the goalscoring department.