Zwane: AmaZulu Is Not Fighting Relegation

AmaZulu co-coach, Arthur Zwane, has brushed off relegation concerns after his side secured their first win of the season against Chippa United at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Tuesday.
The Durban-based club has endured a difficult start to the campaign having lost all the four opening Betway Premiership, but managed to climb off the bottom of the table with a 2-0 victory.
Zwane emphasized that it’s too early to discuss relegation, with a significant number of matches still to be played. Instead, the focus is on improving the team’s performance and challenging for a higher position in the league.
Zwane, , said how they can fight relegation when so many games are left to be played, but cautioned if this is not a turning point.
“I wouldn’t say it is a turning point, it is still early,” said Zwane after the match at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Tuesday, as those four losses in the opening four games this season were worse start in the club’s history.
“I know a lot of people always say we are fighting relegation; I didn’t see that way. How can you fight relegation when you still have 25 games left?
“There is a lot to play for. You start fighting relegation when you are left with five games and that depends on other teams how are they doing – the gap between you and the teams that are there at the bottom, then you can start talk about relegation.
“Right now, we are not even thinking about relegation, we are thinking of improving the team, doing better for the team and challenging because we are in this league to compete.”
One player who has impressed under Zwane and co-coach Vusi Vilakazi is Hendrick Ekstein. The former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder has scored two goals in the past two matches, showcasing his talent and experience.
“If you look at Pule’s impact from the two previous games, you must have seen that how important he is for the club,” said Zwane.
“Fortunately, he comes from a long layoff and he just returned and we needed to manage him because we don’t want him to break and again then we don’t have a player of his caliber and obviously, we are trying to help the other youngsters to get to his level – in terms of penetrating, in terms of reading the game so we can able to have a clear identity of player like-for-like.
“Like when Pule is out, another player when he comes in, he gives us the very same energy, gives us tactical understanding of the game.
“So, I think at one stage we wanted to take him out because we were afraid that if something happens to him and we said ‘You know what, we still have enough time’.
“You can see his energy was already depleted; he was already battling. But, because of experience, we said he must hang in there, as he can able to keep the ball for us and he managed to do that and we wanted to keep him on the field for that.
“It was very important for us to keep the ball and frustrate the opposition and he did that well.”