Maritzburg United head coach David Fadhlu has hinted that the team might undergo a serious transformation before next season.
Fadhlu hopes that the team’s board will support him for that course as he looks to improve their players and style of play. United lost important players last season and finished 4th in the Premier Soccer League, the highest in their history. Kenya’s Brian Mandela plays for United.
“Looking to next season, we must first look back to the end of last season when we lost our captain Kurt Lentjies, who we did not replace … we then lost our captain [Denis] Weidlich in the January window and did not replace him, we sold Evans Rusike and have not replaced him, so we definitely need to strengthen our squad, that’s for sure,” he told KickOff.com.
“Our team and individual players are improving, and our playing style has evolved from the beginning of the season until now, but there are still so many steps we have to take. But we have to start afresh next season with new players coming in to give us more options in different departments, especially in attack,” he added.
Davids feels his players are ahead of where he expected them to be at this point in his tenure and feels the future is bright for the KwaZulu-Natal club.
“If I’m honest with myself, we’re ahead of schedule – I didn’t expect the players to be at this level as yet, but the positive is that the players and team can still improve. We need to strengthen the squad, and we will in all departments, but the future looks bright. When asked about his future, Davids was terse in his reply as he confirmed he will be staying put. I’m at Maritzburg next season,” concluded the coach.
United surprisingly lost the Nedbank Cup finals to Free State Stars on May 19th.