Posted in News on Feb 22, 2015.
Baxter gave youngsters like centre-back Lorenzo Gordinho (20-years-old) and left-back Simphiwe Mtsweni (20) an opportunity to showcase their talent, while the 24-year-old attacking midfielder Hendrick ‘Pule’ Eckstein came on during the second half.
Other unusual starters were right-back Kgotso Moleko (25) and midfielder/winger Ovidy Karuru (26), who was signed at the beginning of this season from Belgium’s OH Leuven. David Zulu, who arrived during the recent transfer-window, got his first start.
“Some raised their hands, others didn’t,” Baxter analyses the overall performances of these players, before mentioning a few by name. “Pule was lively, the crowd reacted to that. However, I also told him: ‘Use the crowd to enhance your performance. But play with us, not with the crowd. You must be a team player’.”
Mthembu scored a hat-trick. “We are still looking for a number 9 to replace Kingston Nkhatha,” the Amakhosi coach reacts, “someone who can link-up the play between midfield and attack. Zulu is not that kind of striker. He played at 10 today, but I am not sure if that is his best role. It will still take a while for David to settle at Chiefs.”
“Killer scored a good goal. However, he’s still a bit behind with his fitness regime and game experience. That last aspect is not easy to solve with the many competitive games coming up that we need to win. There is little room for experiments. Yes, I will try to rotate, but we also want to stay competitive and keep the rhythm.”
“Coming back to the number 9 role, Siphelele is the most like Kingston. However, it’s important that we tackle Kingston’s loss as a team.”
About the Zimbabwean Karuru, Baxter said the following: “He has that ability to go past defenders. He should do that more often than he does at present, he has that freedom. During the game, I tried to push him to take his opponents on. But at the moment it seems that I have more confidence in him than Karuru has in himself.”
Chiefs only scored one goal during the first half, with the performance a bit stale. The second half was much better.
“To be fair to the boys,” Baxter says. “The pitch was greasy, the players were slipping and the ball was bubbling all over. Only Siphiwe ‘Shabba’ Tshabalala seemed to have no problems with the pitch. We changed the way of play somewhat at half-time. In the end, we got the result we were looking for. It’s never easy to play a team far below you, as they will fight and work extra hard. But I am pleased with our performance in the second half.”
Chiefs defender Morgan Gould was wearing the captaincy armband. “Itumeleng Khune and Shabba wanted to focus on their performance in the absence of Tefu Mashamaite, who got a break for this game. Morgan has a lot of experience and he was therefore being appointed the captain.”
Goalkeeper Khune had to be stretchered off the pitch after getting a knee in his back, even struggling with back spasm. However, the injury didn’t seem to be too serious with Khune himself indicating afterwards that he was fine.
