Cape Town City’s new Technical Director Muhsin Ertugral says that after his experience working with the Turkish national team, he has changed his approach in many ways to adapt to the modern footballer.
Ertugral was speaking after his debut as interim coach of City, where his team triumphed 1-0 over Kaizer Chiefs.
Darwin Gonzalez, who had been City’s talisman in previous season, scored the winning goal, his first for the 2024/25 campaign.
When asked by iDiski Times about the significance of Gonzalez being on the scoresheet, Ertugral explained how he had a couple of one-on-one chats with the player (and others), and he feels those helped boost the Venezuelan’s confidence.
Ertugral explained that after working as Technical Advisor for Turkey, he discovered the value of one-on-one conversations rather than just group discussions.
“Myself now also changed a lot in thinking of football,” Ertugral explained.
“I mean, when I left South Africa, obviously the chance for me being in the highest level, I have now had the chances to work with [some of] the best football players in the world, very valuable players, one by one.
“And I changed also myself, my thinking, and we need to adapt to that. You have suddenly players that has unbelievable, tremendous possibilities. So for that, it became more, one on one situation that you talk.
“These big meetings with 20 players, I’m not a fan anymore. We sat down, discuss, I want to have this feedback from the players. In South Africa, when you sit as a foreigner, you come in, which you have in Europe, players won’t talk. So it’s a bit of a challenge that you have. You need to feedback. In the end, they need to go and play.
“So I can provide, or we can provide, from the technicality, so much with analysis. And so we kept also the analysis, little bit of, let me say, not a big flame in to the analysis. So we went and let’s listen.
“Yesterday is past, let’s look forward. So what can we do in in forward aspects? So this one on one situations, twice this week with Darwin. Actually he is a brilliant player, and make him understand and he ask me questions, ‘What must I do in this? What must I do in this?’
“And we discussed about that. I think that helped him also bit today, to find that little bit that space, getting out of the marking zone. So he was, at the time, free, and then we wanted to change a bit, and I expected also from the other side. So I wanted to have these flanks, be a little bit more effective. Darwin had it.
“But obviously the youngster will also come there. I’m pretty much sure this is a very valuable player, Jaiden [Rhodes], for me. And when he is on song, then you have a pretty good wing players there. I think Darwin needed that arm around him because he’s also a foreigner and a brilliant player.”
