AmaZulu FC co-coach Arthur Zwane has hailed the impact of former Kaizer Chiefs player at the club as they work towards turning things around.
Usuthu got their first win of the season on Tuesday evening, beating Chippa United 2-0 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
This was the third match for the newly appointed coaching duo of Zwane and Vilakazi, who had previously suffered defeats to Stellenbosch in the Carling Knockout Cup and Orlando Pirates in the Betway Premiership.
Speaking after the match against the Chilli Boys, Zwane commended the performance of Hendrick Ekstein in the past two games.
Zwane believes Ekstein’s experience has been crucial in helping AmaZulu maintain possession and dictate the pace of the game.
The 33-year-old scored his first goal of the season against Chippa United and was awarded the Man of the Match award for his showing.
ARTHUR ZWANE ON EKSTEIN – ‘YOU MUST HAVE SEEN HOW IMPORTANT HE IS’
“If you look at Pule’s impact from the two previous games, you must have seen how important he is,” said Zwane.
“Unfortunately, he comes from a long layoff. We needed to manage him. We don’t have a player of his calibre right now.
“We’re obviously trying to help the other youngsters to get to his level. In terms of penetrating, in terms of reading the game so that we can be able to have our clear identities as to now have a player like when Pule is out… they come in and give us the same energy and tactical understanding of the game.
“At one stage, we wanted to take him out because we were afraid that if something happened to him. But we were like you know what we still have enough time. But you could see his energy levels were already depleted. He was already battling.
“But because of his experience as well, we said, hang in there as long as you can be able to keep the ball for us. And he managed to do that because we wanted to keep him on the foot for that.
“It was very important towards the end of the game, for us to keep the ball and frustrate the opposition. And he did very well.”
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