Key passes and preferred areas
In the early part of the season, when Maart was the most central of the midfield trio, he was still given some licence to step forward from that role with guys like Cole Alexander, George Matlou and Siyethemba Sithebe playing more to his side. He was the “number six”, but his job was still to squeeze up occasionally and not just occupy a certain zone defensively. As the season has progressed and Blom has come into the anchoring role, Maart has moved to the right of the trio, with Sithebe dropping to the bench. That sees either Dolly or Ngcobo as the left of the triangle even if that doesn’t necessarily suit either player to the full. If we look at the “key passes” played by Maart this season, as defined by performance analysis platform InStat, we can see a wide variety. You have the interception and lovely through ball to set up Ashley Du Preez against Royal AM on the opening day, you have cutbacks from the right by-line since he moved to the “right number eight” position and you have plenty of longer diagonal passes too. Maart has a wide passing range and is never afraid to try the difficult passes, but a lot of them don’t
One other aspect of Maart’s game which we have seen a lot of this season is his dribbling ability. This wasn’t seen all that much at all in this first part of the season where he only attempted four dribbles in the opening six matches. His deeper role dictated that carrying the ball and trying to beat an opponent was too risky. Since Zwane moved him to a more advanced role, we’ve seen his skill in tight situations, aided by his ability to use both feet and to go both directions.
He has made 28 dribbles in the last
eliminate his opponent 3.5 times per 90 minutes of action on average since
the win against SuperSport United in September. He made a massive 13 dribbles, with 10 of those successful in the two legs of the MTN8 semifinals against AmaZulu FC. When the aggressive Makhehlene Makhaula was looking to close him down, he was able to find other ways to progress the ball. A look at his map of dribbles over the last six matches gives you a clear picture of
his new position more towards the right side, linking with the fullback and the right winger more often.