Middendorp builds at Arrows

23 June 2011

Ernst Middendorp will spend next season with Lamontville Golden Arrows, his third club in the Premier Soccer League after recently signing a new one-year contract.

Having helped the team avoid relegation in the last campaign, the former Kaizer Chiefs and Maritzburg United says he is now looking to build a squad that can better their eleventh-placed finish in 2010/11.

How disappointed were you to leave Maritzburg United last season?

It is in the past but I was disappointed in how it happened. I said at the start of the season that we would finish in position 10 to 14 with that group of players and that if we could keep the group together then we would improve on that.

Never were we in position 15 or 16, and I think I left a squad in good shape. Credit to new coach Ian Palmer, when he took over from me he said he did not have to do much, the structure was fine.

And what did you find when you got to Golden Arrows?

There was obviously a lack of consistency in the way they were playing but this is something that has been going on for a few seasons now, they start well and then fade badly in the season.

We are still assessing what went wrong, looking at DVDs of matches from last season before I joined and analysing the players’ performances. The one thing that puzzled me was why the team was conceding so many goals.

We have Bafana Bafana players in the back four such as Siyabonga Sangweni, Mzuvukile Tom, Siyanda Zwane, we have Thanduyise Khuboni in front of them. Even Joseph Musonda is an international player for Zambia.

They should not be conceding as many goals as they do. We are still looking at why.

Was it a difficult decision to sign for another season?

No, I like the club, I like the players, I enjoy it here. But my work at Golden Arrows really starts now, those five games was just to see them to the end of the season, but now we need to build on that and that is not a quick process.

Success does not come overnight. But I love football and I love working with players. It is exciting.

Were you happy with the how the team performed in your five games in charge?

Yes and no, I put down in paper to the club management that we would finish with a minimum of 33 points when I joined and we did that, so from that point of view it was pleasing.

We scored an average of 2.4 goals per game in the matches I was in charge of, which is very good and should have been enough to win more than the two games that we did. But once again, the defence let us down.

What is your target for next season then?

I don’t want to talk about this, because I am always misquoted. A few weeks ago I said we would be a side next season that would be a challenge for the bigger clubs, meaning we will be difficult for them to beat.

Then suddenly, I ready that I have said we will be challenging for the number one position in the league. So I don’t want to talk about targets, I know what they are, the club knows what they are, let’s just leave it at that. 

Have you identified players you want to bring in?

Yes, we know the positions we want to strengthen and we are talking to three or four players about joining us, I don’t want to mention names.

We cannot compete with the likes of Chiefs, Pirates and Sundowns in terms of money, but hopefully we can bring in quality. That is important, the players we buy must have the quality to play in the first team, not just some guy who has done well in the Vodacom League and needs to adjust to the PSL. He must be ready to play PSL football now.

But also within our squad we have a lot of players who have the potential for improvement and that so we will try to help them become regular PSL players.

Re-signing Collins Mbesuma has been quite a coup for the club…

Mbesuma has done very well. Everybody raves about Musona at Chiefs and Mphela, or whatever, but they scored something like 15 and 14 League goals the whole season.

Mbesuma scored 11 League goals and he only started playing for the club in January!

The others guys did not score enough goals in my opinion, but the 11 from Mbesuma in such a short space of time is very good in my opinion. He still has some improvement to do but it is a pleasure to work with a player of this caliber.

Who do you see as fighting for the League next season?

It is very hard to say because you don’t know who is leaving clubs and who is joining, when you know that you can start to make predictions.

If Pirates can keep their team together then they will have a good chance of course, but I would also look to a side like SuperSport United. They have kept their coach Gavin Hunt and they started bringing in players for the new season back in January already, so they have been preparing for a long time.

It takes time to build a squad and a system, which in my opinion is why Pirates did so well this year. They had the same coach and same core of players for three years and look at the success they had?

Then you look at Sundowns, chopping and changing coaches and players all the time and look how it turned out for them.