Maritzburg United head coach John Maduka is confident his squad is strong enough to challenge for a top eight position, but said it will take time for their players to gel, though he feels they’re heading in the right direction.
Maduka was speaking after his team’s goalless draw against Cape Town City at Athlone Stadium on Tuesday.
Maduka felt his team could have won the game in the second half if they took their chances.
“We have to take what God has given us, a point,” Maduka said at the post-match press conference.
“We thought we could have won it, especially in the second half whereby we had so many clear chances but unfortunately we’ve not made use of them and if you don’t score you can’t win games.
“If you look at the game itself I think we started slow, especially up front, defensively we did very, very well, but from the midfield going forward I think our decision-making was not right, and after making the changes second half, and speaking to the players I think it was a different second half, that’s why we managed to create those chances, but unfortunately we did not convert them.”
Maduka said he is happy with the quality of his squad and believes that he has the arsenal to finish in the top eight, but it’s a work in progress.
“I think we do have, I think we do have it’s only a matter of time like we say we trying to be the new team,” he continued.
“If you look at the team that we’re using, most of them are new players from different clubs. We have to make sure that they play together as a team and you can see that we’re getting better.
“We started badly but you can see that it’s coming alright, the understanding is there. You can see I mean this is the second game, clean sheet, that means a lot I mean to us. If you look at the game today, if we were sharp enough in front of goals, we could have done better.
“We would love as a team to finish top eight, which we strongly believe that we are capable of doing that and we do have the players that able to do that.”
