Arthur Zwane reflects on AmaZulu FC's struggles: 'We are our own worst enemy'

AmaZulu FC coach Arthur Zwane concedes that they’ve been their own worst enemy this season, and that’s why they haven’t reached their targets.

Usuthu have been an ambitious side under president Sandile Zungu as he said he wants them to be a top-four club.

They’ve made his ambitions come through once, though, when Benni McCarthy guided the team to a second spot finish in recent years. However, such was the decline of the team since then that Usuthu have been blowing hot and cold, with their status as a Top 8 team also not guaranteed.

After sacking coach Pablo Franco earlier in the season due to a string of poor results, Zungu turned to locals Zwane and Vusumuzi Vilakazi to drive the team. The duo did well as co-coaches, taking the team from the bottom half of the table to the Top 8 – before the latter “resigned due to personal issues”.

Zwane started his lone tenure on a mild note, winning games before losing three games in a row against Mamelodi Sundowns, Stellenbosch and Chippa United. But Zwane and his troops got their groove back in their last match as they beat neighbours Richards Bay FC in the KZN derby on Friday night.

Taariq Fielies scored the lone goal, and Zwane was happy that his team was able to keep a clean sheet as they kept their chances of finishing third alive.

“My belief is that if we didn’t concede (meaning, if they haven't been conceding, they wouldn’t be here) especially if you look at the goals that we (have) conceded,” Zwane said.

“Even today (Friday), we still gave the ball away cheaply. The good thing is that we managed to recover. Looking at other games; for me we should have longed to secure this spot.

"The worst result that we should have gotten (in those games) was supposed to be a draw(s). We are our own enemy. Not many teams beat AmaZulu, but AmaZulu beat themselves because of the mistakes that we committed.”

Zwane is right – they must curb their mistakes if they are to cement their Top 8 sport and push for a third-place spot to qualify for the CAF Confederation Cup next season. Usuthu will host Stellies in their next clash – the same team they are competing with for a third-spot on the log.

Zwane, though, knows that they have to create their own fate by winning games and let the rest take care of itself in the race for a Top 3 finish in the league. 

“We are just looking forward to the next game. I am not too worried about the oppositions,” Zwane explained. “The results will handle themselves. There are many other games. We went to Johannesburg, and we scored four goals and people are saying they’ll take us somewhere.

“There are many other games in which we threw away points. So this team can show character, there was a time where we were not doing good enough.

“It’s not that we were playing badly, but today we showed character.  We’ve just not been showing character.”