Given the success that coach Zahir Arendse has achieved thus far in Safa Cape Town’s structures, one dare not mock or disregard his ambitions and expectations for more silverware in the Hollywoodbets Third Division.
That said Arendse, who formerly coached Woodlands United, got the tongues wagging following a surprisingly slow start to his second season with Saxons after an impressive debut campaign last season.
Saxons, who have been a mere shadow of themselves, are currently languishing in the 16th position after bagging only five points from six matches.
And Zarrie, as Arendse is called, has finally lifted the lid on their current woes.
“If you lose your top goal scorer to another team it is difficult to replace, you know,” Arendse pointed out to No Bones with Jones. “And if you look at the fact that four of our attacking players are not with the team. We replaced them with 17 and 18-year-old players who still need experience and sometimes they make silly errors but that is bound to happen, you know.
It is unfair to put pressure on those youngsters playing in the league for the first time. We take the risk by playing six to seven Unders in every game… people don’t even know that. And out of that there are only two or three of them that played Third Division football before. But there is one or two things we are working on at training but we should be fine,” Arendse added.
The experienced Arendse, with his calm and collected coaching style, reckons it is still early days and no reason for panic.
The beauty and the curse of this league, dubbed as the ‘graveyard’ for its cutroatt nature, is that the games come thick and fast. That is why Arendse is hoping they can cash in on their double-header this weekend which could potentially change the order of standings.
Arendse further explained: “Should we win both games this weekend (vs Ocean View FC and Jomos Power) then we should be in the top 10 again. If you can win five games in a row then you find yourself on a run without you even knowing.”
Arendse is also of the opinion that he is not too keen on the Festive break which kicks in after this weekend and rescheduled on 10 January 2025.
“It is not that we are playing badly, it is just that we don’t have the luck we had last season,” Arendse added.” Also, the players are starting to adapt to what we want to do hence we still want to continue,” Arendse concluded.
