AmaZulu captain Makhehleni Makhaula says even the world’s top coaches, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho, would fail if players are not pulling their weight.
He has called out his teammates, saying they should take the blame for the club’s poor showings. The gritty midfielder vows to fight for coach Romain Folz until the end.
Usuthu have moved from hero to zero in a short period, which has seen them having three coaches in the space of eight months.
At the beginning of the year, they ended their relationship with coach Benni McCarthy. This was after the Bafana Bafana all-time top scorer had helped them qualify for the CAF Champions League.
The club moved from challenging for league honours to fighting for top-eight qualification. Brandon Truter, who took over from McCarthy, managed to deliver the top-eight finish.
However, he was forced to resign recently, with results not forthcoming.
PLAYER ATTITUTED AN ISSUE?
With everything that has been going on in the past year, there have been many questions about the attitude of players. Of course, McCarthy and Truter lost their jobs.
Makhaula admits that players must take the blame for what has been happening to the team. He suggested that even the great international coaches would fail if players were not responding well to them.
“As players, we need to take the blame as well because you can bring Pep Guardiola or Jose Mourinho, but if we are not doing justice to him, you can never blame them,” Makhaula told FARPost.
“We as players need to take the blame like real men. We cannot allow coaches to fall alone because of us. We need to do better.”
With the age gap between them and new coach Folz, there are concerns that players might undermine the coach. However, the captain says there has been an honest conversation with the coach. He added that, as players, they agreed among themselves to fight for him.
“What I like about coach Folz is that he made it clear that he understands the age gap between us. He emphasised respect in the team. [Folz] is a down-to-earth man and speaks well with his players.”
“We have to fight for him and not that we didn’t do that to other coaches. We have assured the coach that we will respect and fight for him until the end.
