Vasili Manousakis hints at approaching free agents for Spurs’ survival
Cape Town Spurs assistant coach Vasili Manousakis has hinted that the club may look into signing free agents to turn around their fortunes in the DStv Premiership.
Spurs lost 2-0 to Orlando Pirates at Orlando Stadium on Friday, exiting the Carling Knockout Cup.
The Cape Town-based outfit was promoted to SA’s top flight from the Motsepe Foundation Championship at the start of the 2023/24 season. They struggled to stamp their authority in the DStv Premiership after losing all their opening eight games in the league.
As a result, the Urban Warriors sacked Shaun Bartlett who helped the team gain promotion to the Premiership.
Spurs did not make high-profile signings after gaining promotion to the elite league and Manousakis has suggested that they may look into free agents to beef up the squad.
VASILI MANOUSAKIS ADVISES SPURS TO BEEF SQUAD WITH FREE AGENTS
“The positive [from the match against Pirates] is that when we put the foot on the ball and play football, we can control periods of the game,” said Manousakis.
“So we can’t just play the balls into the channels and ask the strikers to chase them. Certainly not against Pirates and many other PSL teams because it becomes long 90 minutes.
“There are Sports Psychologists who are speaking to the boys and trying to get them to open up. We have a lot of one-on-one meetings, trying to get to know the boys and see what makes them tick.
“We had a team building, even that was very short because we didn’t have the time, we trying to put a lot of effort on the training pitch.
“So we try to have double sessions whether they are on the pitch or video analysis because the reality is the interim coach Sean Connor wants to play in a different way.
“It takes time to play that way, it’s not like you have pre-season or January break where you have time to work these things out.
“So while the two-week FIFA break was a good break, there’s still a lot of work to do and I think what we can see is, the difference between PSL and the First Division is very big.
“I know that from my time at Richards Bay, so we just have to keep working, keep encouraging, keep getting them to believe.
“If there are one or two gems of free agents we can approach, that’s what we have to do.”
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