NB La Masia head coach Ashwin Sutton says Oupa Manyisa will bring much-needed experience to his side for the rest of the season.
Manyisa, 34, reunited with Sutton at the side who were promoted from the ABC Motsepe League for their debut foray into the professional ranks.
Having worked with the former Orlando Pirates midfielder last season at Platinum City Rovers, he felt ‘Ace’ is one of the missing pieces to their talented squad.
“You need the leader on the ground, you need someone who can guide these boys, you need someone, who can keep that structure for you,” Sutton said, when asked by iDiski Times why he roped Manyisa in.
“Ya look, we’ll see and take it game by game, as I say [when looking what he can offer].”
Having been appointed as head coach last month, he’s started his tenure with a draw and massive 2-1 win over Black Leopards which moved them into 12th place with 18 points.
While they are five points off 16th-placed Leopards, they trail the league leaders Casric FC by 18 points – with 13 rounds of fixtures remaining.
“Look I won’t say the players have underperformed [before I came], it’s about self-belief and what I can tell you is – sometimes you need a bit of luck as well,” Sutton explained when asked what he’s changed.
“I think it’s team number 25 [I’ve coached in NFD], I even coached Black Leopards you know – [to survive in this league] it’s all orgnaisation, structure and what’s key to surviving, you need players with hunger, players that really want to win, that’s key.
“Last season I was with Platinum City Rovers, we maintained the status, we were on top of the league for 12 games, until what happened, happened. For these guys, I think they should respect the older teams.
“They should respect the bigger teams, come and play a closed game, they’ve been playing 4-3-3, open games. All I changed is to play closed games and we got four points from it.”
Their next three games in the second tier will see them face Hungry Lions, Venda Football Academy, and TTM.
