Staff Reporter.
SuperSport United begin the post-Kaitano Tembo era with a trip to the FNB Stadium for a DStv Premiership encounter against Kaizer Chiefs on Saturday.
Tembo was sacked by United on Tuesday to bring an end to his 23-year association with the club, who appointed Andre Arendse as his successor on an interim basis until the end of the season.
The Pretoria giants felt that their former defender’s position had become untenable after the 3-2 defeat to TTM in the Nedbank Cup quarterfinals last Friday.
Arendse’s first task will be to arrest a four-match winless streak in the league, which has left SuperSport eighth in the standings on 31 points, eight adrift of the top three which brings with it CAF Football.
However, Arendse indicated that the mood in the camp is positive, saying: “The most important thing that stood out for me in our training sessions so far leading up to this game is the vibe.
“There’s an intensity about training, there’s a willingness to do things…and what that shows me is that people are putting their hands up for starting XI selections and that’s really good.
“Any coach will tell you that it’s wonderful nightmare to have in terms of who to play in a specific game and I think that’s the thing that will drive us this week.”
Chiefs will target a return to winning ways after being held to a goalless draw by struggling TS Galaxy last week.
The titans of Soweto trail Royal AM by four points in third position with two games in hand, although they are still awaiting the PSL’s decision on whether those fixtures will be rescheduled, having failed to honour them in December due to an outbreak of Covid-19 at Naturena.
Chiefs head coach Stuart Baxter admits he doesn’t know what to expect from Matsatsantsa following the departure of Tembo, but is more concerned with getting his team’s top-two challenge back on track.
“People usually say you don’t want to play against a team that has just changed a coach because no matter what there will be an effect,” he said. “Because Kaitano is both a friend and colleague, it is a shame that he had to leave his post.
“Sometimes the club benefits or doesn’t benefit – the pros and cons of that one I don’t know. Whether we will find a fired-up SuperSport or a SuperSport in disarray we should just concentrate on our game to be honest.”
“We’ve got roughly the same crop of injuries that we’ve had before, a few of the long-term ones, S’fiso [Hlanti], and people like that,” Baxter said.
“So we don’t have anymore. We’ve got people coming back, like Leo Castro’s in very good shape at the moment, he’s been working very hard. Cole Alexander’s back, he had an extra game last week to get over his dislocated elbow.
“So apart from that, we had a couple that were ill earlier on but Bernard [Parker] did his first training today, Phatu [Nange] had his vaccination so he went two protocol days without training. So we’ve got everybody back in, they did a session today, we’ve just finished it, but everybody worked very hard.
“They seem to be in good spirits and looking forward to the game, especially looking forward to obviously playing in front of the supporters again.”