Steve Barker pick ‘firm favourites’ for 2024/25 season league title
Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker has identified a PSL club he believes is a strong contender to win the 2024/25 season Betway Premiership title.
Barker was speaking after his side secured a spot in the MTN8 final after eliminating Mamelodi Sundowns on Sunday at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
The Betway Premiership is set to commence on the weekend of September 14 and 15, after experiencing delays due to protracted negotiations regarding a new league sponsorship in July.
Mamelodi Sundowns will be striving to defend their title, having claimed victory for seven consecutive seasons. However, in the past three MTN8 matches they have played, they seem to have dropped somewhat.
Despite this, Barker maintains that the Brazilians have not lost their edge and believes that Stellenbosch deserve credit for their commendable performance in eliminating the Tshwane giants from the MTN8.
He asserts that Mngqithi’s side continues to be the “firm favourites” for the league title, although many anticipate that the forthcoming season will be highly competitive.
STEVE BARKER ON WHO’S A STRONG CONTENDER FOR THE 2024/25 LEAGUE TITLE
“I think our performances is the reason why we won the past two games, I wouldn’t say it’s because of the poor performance from Sundowns, to be honest,” said Barker.
“I think they’ve shown enough quality that they will win many, many football leagues. For me, they’re still the firm favourites to take the league.
“We had to suffer a lot on Wednesday. In the last ten minutes, they could’ve gotten themselves back to the game.
“Today, they could have also salvaged the game. They are still a good team and great individuals, but the reason we got through in the last two games is just really a good structure, good planning, good preparation and good tactical sort of…
“We knew they would make one or two changes with [Arthur] Sales starting upfront and then [Lucas] Ribeiro coming inside and creating sort of a double ten, a situation that caused a bit of problems.
“But we believed, sometimes you got to be brave against Sundowns because if you don’t go close and pressurise them and you give midfielders and defenders on the ball, they use the time they have and hurt you.”
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