Posted in News, Team News on Apr 25, 2021.
Kaizer Chiefs coach Gavin Hunt believes his team is well aware of the task that awaits them when they face current log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns in their next DStv Premiership clash on Sunday afternoon at Loftus Stadium in Pretoria. Hunt is also confident that the work they have done on the training ground since Wednesday’s game against Cape Town City will have helped Chiefs work out their mistakes and they will be ready to take on Sundowns with great confidence and motivation.
Hunt though pointed at the fact that games are coming rapidly and wants his team to quickly bounce back from the loss to Cape Town City and tackle their next assignment against Sundowns with renewed enthusiasm and vigour.
“With the games coming so thick and fast in a week, it’s not easy when you play teams such a Sundowns and Cape Town City,” says coach Gavin Hunt. “Even with the derbies when we played Pirates earlier, the games were tight. We only get a couple of days for preparation and we go again. We are looking forward to the game though. Obviously, we had a disappointing result the other night which puts added pressure on this game.”
While the games are running up fast, Hunt does feel that he does not need to juggle his pack too much. “We can’t really juggle players much - we’ve got a good core of players,” he adds. Everyone has to have a little more belief. Upfront we have four attackers so there’s not much we can juggle around with.”
As the coach has alluded to that he will not be juggling his pack too much for the Sundowns clash, he does want his charges to learn from their last few games and instead take the advantage in games when chances do fall their way first. As he explains saying: “We have given ourselves a mountain to climb in the last game by going a goal down. And in other games we have been a goal up and let it slip. We need to get better over 90 minutes. No doubt, we need to defend better and take our chances.”
He also lamented the fact that his team did not capitalise on the myriad of opportunities that his team created against Cape Town City. “I think we had some really good ones and we did not take them. My old adage is defences win leagues and strikers win games. We have not defended properly this year.
“We work on fixing our defensive chinks all the time. We just have to keep riding away, improve our concentration and keep working on the training ground to ensure the whole team is prepared.
With Hunt looking for an improvement from his team, he has kept his eye on the log leaders who are unbeaten after 21 leagues games this season.
“They are a very formidable side,” he comments. They invested heavily into their side. They have a very good squad of players and good coaches. The guys have been around and are very experienced. Obviously, they have a huge arsenal of players. We are under no illusions, we are away from home so it’s going to be a big ask from us, but we are fit and ready to do our best.”
This will be the 50th league clash between Chiefs and Sundowns in the PSL era with Amakhosi having historically since 1996-97 had the upper hand over Sundowns winning 20 of their previous 49 league clashes in this time. They will be looking to history to motivate them and lead them to an away league win over Sundowns for the second season in a row.
The game will be live on SuperSport Channel 202 on DStv and SABC 1 at 15:00 at Loftus Versfeld, with commentary on SABC radio and regular updates on Twitter @kaizerchiefs.
Hunt though pointed at the fact that games are coming rapidly and wants his team to quickly bounce back from the loss to Cape Town City and tackle their next assignment against Sundowns with renewed enthusiasm and vigour.
“With the games coming so thick and fast in a week, it’s not easy when you play teams such a Sundowns and Cape Town City,” says coach Gavin Hunt. “Even with the derbies when we played Pirates earlier, the games were tight. We only get a couple of days for preparation and we go again. We are looking forward to the game though. Obviously, we had a disappointing result the other night which puts added pressure on this game.”
While the games are running up fast, Hunt does feel that he does not need to juggle his pack too much. “We can’t really juggle players much - we’ve got a good core of players,” he adds. Everyone has to have a little more belief. Upfront we have four attackers so there’s not much we can juggle around with.”
As the coach has alluded to that he will not be juggling his pack too much for the Sundowns clash, he does want his charges to learn from their last few games and instead take the advantage in games when chances do fall their way first. As he explains saying: “We have given ourselves a mountain to climb in the last game by going a goal down. And in other games we have been a goal up and let it slip. We need to get better over 90 minutes. No doubt, we need to defend better and take our chances.”
He also lamented the fact that his team did not capitalise on the myriad of opportunities that his team created against Cape Town City. “I think we had some really good ones and we did not take them. My old adage is defences win leagues and strikers win games. We have not defended properly this year.
“We work on fixing our defensive chinks all the time. We just have to keep riding away, improve our concentration and keep working on the training ground to ensure the whole team is prepared.
With Hunt looking for an improvement from his team, he has kept his eye on the log leaders who are unbeaten after 21 leagues games this season.
“They are a very formidable side,” he comments. They invested heavily into their side. They have a very good squad of players and good coaches. The guys have been around and are very experienced. Obviously, they have a huge arsenal of players. We are under no illusions, we are away from home so it’s going to be a big ask from us, but we are fit and ready to do our best.”
This will be the 50th league clash between Chiefs and Sundowns in the PSL era with Amakhosi having historically since 1996-97 had the upper hand over Sundowns winning 20 of their previous 49 league clashes in this time. They will be looking to history to motivate them and lead them to an away league win over Sundowns for the second season in a row.
The game will be live on SuperSport Channel 202 on DStv and SABC 1 at 15:00 at Loftus Versfeld, with commentary on SABC radio and regular updates on Twitter @kaizerchiefs.
