Zwane says AmaZulu must improve after Carling Knockout exit

AmaZulu head coach Arthur Zwane admitted his side still have “a lot of work to do” after their unbeaten run ended with a 2-1 defeat by Stellenbosch in the Carling Knockout Cup.

The loss at the Danie Craven Stadium on Sunday evening denied AmaZulu a place in the semi-finals and ended a sequence that had stretched back to August.

Usuthu had won six matches in a row before the setback and appeared to be in control for long periods of the second half against Gavin Hunt’s side. Their hopes were ended in stoppage time when a penalty was awarded after a handball by Taariq Fielies.

Zwane, who was named Betway Premiership Coach of the Month for September and October, said AmaZulu would need to reassess their performance rather than simply rely on the form that had carried them through their winning run.

Asked whether the priority was to recover the habits and standards that had produced those six victories, Zwane said: “Yeah, look, Big Man, it’s true what you are saying, but at the end of the day, we still have a lot of work to do.

“Hence, I said, if we made some good decisions, more especially in the final third entries, and a lot of times one of our strengths is us playing the ball in the assist zones, just like the goal we scored.

“Had we played many of those, I think we could have easily had or created more goalscoring opportunities. Actually, we got. Pule [Ekstein] got there, but of course he was late. You get what I mean.”

The AmaZulu manager felt his players repeatedly reached dangerous positions but failed to make the correct final pass.

“So, Omega [Mdaka] got there, and then he delayed. [Riaan] Hanamub got there, and then the ball was near post,” he said.

“We had a lot of those, especially second half, but we’re just not finding or getting the right players in terms of the selection of passes in order for them to tap in.”

Zwane also suggested that AmaZulu’s dominance contributed to their downfall, as Stellenbosch adopted a more defensive approach before winning the decisive penalty.

“Then you end up because now the game is going in your favour, you become excited sometimes because you can see the opposition is also now waiting, they are forming a block,” he added.

“They don’t want to take the game to us. You know why? Because now we are in control. But now, once you are in control, you tend to suffer like we ended up conceding, a penalty, you know, of which is in football.”

Although Zwane believed there may have been a foul earlier in the move, he accepted that his defenders could have dealt with the situation more effectively.

“We can sit here and say, no, it was supposed to be a foul there, but you still had defenders to maybe make a professional foul or do something,” he said.

“But that’s football, you know. But then ja, we have ourselves to blame. To be quite honest, we had this game in our hands, and then we let it slip. And sometimes we’ve got to learn, and unfortunately, we’ve got to learn the hard way.”