SuperSport United’s assistant and goalkeeper coach Andre Arendse has admitted that their Nedbank Cup quarterfinal clash against Orlando Pirates came at a time when the club is dealing with a fair share of struggles.
United suffered a dip in form and have dropped to the 13th place in the Betway Premiership standings having started the season well and spent the first half sitting on the top eight positions.
To add to the struggles, head coach Gavin Hunt is currently suspended and will not be on the bench for this showdown that is set for Saturday, 8 March at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium.
The former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper admitted that facing Pirates is always a challenge for them and it’s a game that has produced some clinical displays.
“I think it is always a massive one for us and past battles with a team like Orlando Pirates have yielded some clinical displays from both teams,” he said during the Nedbank Cup press conference.
“It’s a game that we as a club go into on the back of not some good form, the league position will state that and what it does do is, it gives us a break from the league so that we can focus on just something different, try a few different things with players, setups formations Etc. and build that again towards our league campaign.
“The game itself I certainly am looking forward to, I think every coach does, every player does look forward to playing against a team like Orlando Pirates and they’re a team in some fine form at the moment.
“They’ve got their own aspirations and Ambitions to mount a strong challenge to Mamelodi Sundowns and they certainly not doing too badly on that front. So we definitely going to have our work cut out for us tomorrow,” he concluded.