Ertugral will stick with youth over stars policy
Mpumalanga Black Aces coach Muhsin Ertugral is sticking to his guns and deciding to keep a relatively small squad next season.
|||Johannesburg - Mpumalanga Black Aces coach Muhsin Ertugral is sticking to his guns and deciding to keep a relatively small squad next season.
The Turkish-born mentor would rather top-up his team with youngsters, than complicate his selection policy by adding a few more big names.
It’s no surprise that Ertugral has taken this stance once again, having made it clear when he took over at Aces at the start of the season that he did not want more than 23 players to pick from.
However, over the last few weeks, as the Absa Premiership campaign concludes, the coach has lamented the fact that he has been without key players like Lebogang Manyama and Aubrey Ngoma in crucial matches. He believes the duo would have given them an advantage in the games they lost in their absence and helped them move further up the log standings.
“For us, a smaller squad is much more important. You can look at buying in December, but it is always so difficult because of the (limited) financial resources that we have,” Ertugral said on Wednesday.
“Obviously, there is interest in some of our top players from bigger clubs. I have been given the names and we need to see if they will move on, which opens the door for younger players. At the moment we already have five young players from the Diski Challenge (reserve league) training with us.”
Ertugral strongly believes that his side can compete for honours in the upcoming term, even if the so-called big guns in Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates, Bidvest Wits and maybe even SuperSport United, strengthen their squads.
“Anyone can challenge,” the former Chiefs coach said.
“It is stupid to suggest that only those teams can win things. “We all look at what Leicester City have done by winning the English Premier League. This is an inspiration for the so-called smaller sides. Obviously, Chiefs, Sundowns, Wits, Pirates and SuperSport have resources.
“They have the quality and the money to buy the players, and they need to. But if Chiefs do not win their last game (against Chippa United on Saturday) and we beat Free State Stars, we will finish above them, Pirates and SuperSport.
“This will be a major achievement for a club with limited resources like ours. And we would have done that with youngsters in our team.”
Aces are currently fifth on the Premier League table and can mathematically still finish in third place, opening the door for their participation in the CAF Confederation Cup next year, which Ertugral has used as an incentive for his men to go out and beat Stars this weekend. This has not forced Ertugral to reconsider his small squad approach.
“When we won the cup (then called the African Cup Winners’ Cup) with Chiefs in 2001, no-one thought it was possible. And we did it with 15 registered players. And we came up against Ismaily (Egypt) and Club Africain (Tunisia), who were front-runners in African football at that time. So, anything is possible. It is all about preparation,” the coach explained.
He may look to sign a forward to help Collins Mbesuma, the likely winner for this season’s Golden Boot award, carry the load next season. “Our striking department fell short this season.
For example, in our game against SuperSport last week we had 32 crosses, which is very high, and only four connections into the box. This is very poor. We had about 60 entries in the last third and in the end we couldn’t score. We have only had Collins scoring the goals. We need some help,” said Ertugral.
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The Star