Furman believes SuperSport have found their mojo
SuperSport’s move up the table to fourth place, suggests Dean Furman and his teammates are hell-bent on not repeating past mistakes.
|||Johannesburg - Dean Furman was reserved when discussing SuperSport United’s Absa Premiership title chances this season. It was easy to understand why with only seven matches played and an awful lot of football still to come before Matsatsantsa and their fellow championship contenders are forced into a lengthy Christmas break.
But their move up the table to fourth place on Saturday night following a 2-0 win over struggling Ajax Cape Town - benefiting from a weekend of draws by top sides - suggests Furman and his teammates are hell-bent on not repeating past mistakes. It’s especially significant not to drop the ball tonight when they host Orlando Pirates, yet another team under pressure to win matches, in Nelspruit.
“We left it late last season, picking up points when we were probably out of the running for the title,” said Furman. “It is important to be right up there among the contenders to push for the title at the end of the season. We are getting a lot of players back, like Clayton Daniels, Bradley Grobler and hopefully Dove Wome as well. We are in a good position to stock up some points and be in the mix with all these top players returning.”
Pirates have no such luck and they will still be without captain Oupa Manyisa and Luvuyo Memela.
The duo suffered from food poisoning and failed to make the Soweto Derby against Kaizer Chiefs, which ended goalless, on Saturday afternoon and now look set to also be unavailable tonight. There are some concerns about the Buccaneers’ championship mettle under coach Muhsin Ertugral following four successive league draws and a sixth-place position on the Premier League table.
“We shouldn’t say that they are not clicking because they have been there and done it and we have massive respect for them,” said Furman. “We know the cup final result sticks out (SuperSport beat Pirates 3-1 to win the Nedbank Cup in May) and on the day we played to instructions. It is important to keep our shape because with the kind of prowess Pirates have, they can expose us.”
A big part of SuperSport’s return to form is courtesy of an improving defence and striker Jeremy Brockie finally scoring after having found no way around the opposition defenders earlier in the campaign.
“I think we dropped too many points at the start.
“We should have never lost to Platinum Stars (in a league opener on August 23). I think we were not creating enough chances as well, but we are now,” Furman elaborated.
“We have been tight at the back in recent games and that is very important for us. Brockie is a massive player for the club, whether he scores or not. I just think when he gets the goals that is when a lot of people also get to see his quality. But we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves because there is a lot of football still to be played and we want to be there in the mix.”
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The Star