Stellenbosch coach Steve Barker has lamented the team’s lack of squad depth to cope with the congested calendar of fixtures between local and continental competitions. 

Stellies registered their second consecutive defeat in their second game of the CAF Confederations Cup, losing 3-1 at home to RS Berkane of Morocco at Moses Mabhida on Sunday. 

Working with a relatively young squad of 29 players, it looked like the lack of rotation policy between games had eventually taken a toll on the Winelands club who have played the more competitive game (20) than all Premier Soccer League (PSL) teams.  

League competitors, Mamelodi Sundowns on the other hand boast a squad of 41 players who have been in full rotation since the beginning of the season. The Stellies gaffer insists that a bigger squad would be an advantage for his team as well, considering their participation in multiple competitions. 

“It is an advantage; people forget that we have already played 20 matches since August. By the end of the year, we would have played 10 league games which means from January to May we will have 20 league games to play plus the CAF and Nedbank,” said Barker. 

The MTN8 finalist coach further cemented his sentiments saying, “So it’s not easy and I have to admit it’s not like I can just rest seven or eight players and that. It’s about who to play for which situation and which game so we just have to be smart and navigate the situation, learn from it quickly, and hopefully the lessons we learned going forward we can look to rectify them.” 

While working with a thin squad, the Durban-born tactician has suffered the loss of a key figure in forward, Lehlohonolo Mojela who is ruled out for the rest of the season due to a knee injury.

The coach expanded on the extent to which this injury blow has affected the team, adding the significant impact Mojela would bring to their CAF games and further shared his hopes for potential new signings come the January transfer window. 

“So we still want to play in this competition even next year so we got to fight hard to finish in the top three, but I do believe even a player like Mojela being out. He is an ideal type of player to play against a team from North Africa when he is running behind and his aggressiveness. So we miss a player like him so come January we hopefully we can look to bolster the team a little bit because we do have a lot of matches coming up from January till May,” expanded the 56-year-old. 

Barker however remained hopeful for knockout qualification in the CAF Confed Cup despite suffering the worst possible start to the competition. Stellies will look to revive their chances of completion when they visit CD Luanda Sul of Angola for what the coach described as a cup final next Saturday in Luanda.