Johannesburg - AmaZulu’s interim coach Ayanda Dlamini will look to take advantage of his knowledge of Brandon Truter’s strategies when they welcome Sekhukhune United next.
The two teams will come to blows at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday in an 8pm kick-off.
Now at the helm of Babina Noko, Truter will return to face a side he led into the top six of the DStv premiership standings and an MTN8 semi-final before departing his post in October last year.
Truter worked closely with Dlamini as his assistant during his five-month spell at the Durban-based club, before being released on account of a dip in form.
AmaZulu’s interim coach Ayanda Dlamini will look to take advantage of his knowledge of Brandon Truter’s strategies when they welcome Sekhukhune United next. pic.twitter.com/wmemMEAf3J
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Dlamini spoke to the media in the lead-up to his side’s clash with Sekhukhune and revealed that he expects Truter to have a chip on his shoulder. However, Dlamini said his charges would try to use their knowledge of Truter’s tactics as part of their plans to return to winning ways.
“It's difficult, he's been here and he's gonna be motivated to come here and get a result but we know how he plays, he hasn't changed since he left. The way he plays now is exactly how played when he was here so we have to prepare for that and try to find solutions to break it down,” Dlamini said of Truter.
Usuthu has placed themselves in a precarious position on the log standings and their poor run of results has seen them get dragged down to the relegation conversation as they linger just three points away from 15th-placed Chippa United.
AmaZulu has won one, drawn one and lost three of their last five league games, a record that has seen Dlamini take over the reins from the redeployed Romain Folz.
In Sekhukhune, Usuthu faces a side they've never beaten, having met on three occasions already in the past, a trend that doesn't bode well for the home side.
Coach Truter and his boys are one of the most in-form teams in the league having won three and drawn two of their last five outings, the kind of form that sees them in sixth spot on the standings six points from AmaZulu.
Under the leadership of Dlamini, Usuthu has conceded four goals in two games, losing one and drawing the other.
The 38-year-old mentor did not hide when quizzed about his side's leaky defence and expressed his displeasure with his boy’s conceding the first two goals in the last two matches.
“We don't need to come back (from behind), we've let ourselves down from that aspect. We let teams get goals and after that, we want to react,” he explained.
“We’ve seen in the last two games how we fight when we've conceded, we just need to start with that momentum and try to get an early goal and see how the opposition will react to that.”
@ScribeSmiso
IOL Sport