Senong tips Kaizer Chiefs new-signing Maart to ‘adapt very quickly’ at Naturena

Sekhukhune United assistant coach Thabo Senong is “confident” the presence of Arthur Zwane will help Yusuf Maart take little time to settle down at Kaizer Chiefs.

Maart was confirmed a Chiefs player last week and joined the club as they began their pre-season training ahead of the 2022/23 season.

With the midfielder joining Chiefs from Sekhukhune United where there was little pressure for silverware, Senong believes the transition will not be difficult for the Bafana Bafana player.

“Maart is a student of the game; he is a coachable player, someone who always wants to improve himself, so I don’t see such a player failing to adapt to any environment,” Senong told Soccer Laduma.

“You look at the Chiefs set up at the moment, the coach Arthur Zwane, is very knowledgeable about how to help players transition from youth to performance football, so I am sure Arthur will also help him to transition from having played for Sekhukhune to Kaizer Chiefs.

“I’m confident Yusuf is going to adapt very quickly and help Chiefs to perform and develop and continue to grow as a midfielder.”

Maart joins the Chiefs midfield that has the likes of established stars like Phathutshedzo Nange and Cole Alexander, as well as new signings George Matlou, Kamohelo Mahlatsi and Siyethemba Sithebe.

Senong who coached Maart at Sekhukhune feels the player is a roving midfielder who is comfortable anywhere in the middle of the park and that will make him easily adjust at Amakhosi.

“We are proud as a club, Sekhukhune, because Yusuf was an important player in our group, and he is a good professional on and off the field,” said Senong.

“He was the captain of the team, and he helped our team a lot to be stable in the league because he played 28 matches in total and had three goals and three assists.

“But what is interesting about Yusuf is his pre-assists, the assist before the actual assist, he had about 10 of them because he counter-pressed a lot when we lost the ball, and he intercepted a lot of balls when we were defending, so for me, that makes him very interesting in the midfield.

“He has the right mentality to be a top midfielder, and he is very athletic, and he is versatile in his positions so he can play as a number 10, 8, 6, so his positional versatility will always make him a top midfielder and we have no doubt that he will just go there and shine.”

Next season will be Maart’s third plying his trade in the top-flight.