Absa Premiership

Ajax Cape Town 1 – 0 Kaizer Chiefs

5 November 2013

The Amakhosi travelled to Cape Town on Tuesday evening knowing very well the challenges they faced against Ajax Cape Town. Chiefs arrived at the backdrop of losing to Ajax in their past three consecutive visits in Cape Town. This time it was substitute Tasriq Morris 87th minute headed goal that inflicted pain over the Amakhosi. Coach Baxter reflected on his 50th game as Chiefs mentor as follows:

On his overall impression of the game:

“Obviously we are disappointed that we did not take anything with us from the game. The crowd obviously enjoyed it but our supporters must be disappointed with the result. We just have to go back to Johannesburg to lick our wounds and sharpen our swords to be ready for the next battle (Kaizer Chiefs v Bidvest Wits, Saturday 9 November 2013, FNB, 20:15)”

On the crowd behaviour following the incidences of booing in the previous games:

“If the crowd openly show their displeasure to any of our players, it upsets the whole group. In the long term that’s something that the supporters certainly need to understand. If they cannot understand that, of course the players need to forge ahead, but the thing is, they will feel more isolated from their supporters.

The supporter behaviour didn’t have any impact on the game tonight. The players have responded well and obviously they have made an appeal to their supporters but it is something that we have to continue working on going forward. The booing disappeared tonight.”

On what most pundits describe as a complacent Chiefs Team:

“It is a combination of a few things, maybe complacency with the players sometimes. The opposition have become technically smart against us, as we have to pick our way through packed defences most of the times. We lose our focus, we don’t play quick enough and we don’t play precisely enough. I see that we struggle with the final pass and the final strike on goal. We have to make sure the quality of the finishing becomes better.”

On the call to beef up the squad:

“Beefing up the squad is what we plan to do but not that we aren’t happy with the squad we have at the moment. It will be a matter of creating competition in the squad. I have seen quality that can win us games in future. Against the organised opposition like Ajax, I still saw quality coming through from our players. What we need is focus and consistency because top teams must have that at all times.”

On Josta Dladla coming on as a substitute in the 78th minute:

Josta is a good professional. I respect him for the work he does every day for the team. He is working hard and is doing the job that we require of him. The thing is, Josta understands his role in the team. He is a role model when he trains and when he comes on, be it on the right back, centre or attacking midfield, he does what we require of him. To me he is a valuable player. Just because it is not reflected in minutes in every game, it is not a reflection of my respect for him.”

The question of complacency seemed to crop up repeatedly:

“I hope you understand what we mean by complacency. I mean the degree of complacency. I am not saying it is lazy showing and the players don’t concentrate. If you have done a double anywhere in the world, ask Manchester United, you become complacent, you have a problem of switching off at times and I don’t think that is punishable by dropping players and reading the riot act. We have to raise our standard again to make sure that we don’t suffer from complacency.”

On the rotation of the players:

If you have the schedule we are experiencing at the moment, you play and rest for three weeks and play ten games in four days and rest for another three weeks, it makes it difficult to find the rhythm. I don’t rotate the team because they don’t need it, I try to recuperate them and pull out a strong team every time we go to play. The other players maybe don’t like that, but I try to pick up the strong team all the time. We will need to rotate the players when the games start to flow properly.

On Reneilwe Letsholanyane and Lacky Baloyi’s combination, with Willard Katsande out on the night with a one game suspension, Baloyi got his second start of the season:

It was difficult for Yeye as he enjoys going forward but he did a good job playing with Lucky in the middle. I think Lucky played well coming from a period without game time, he adjusted and the two played well together.

Kaizer Chiefs: Khune, Gaxa (Dladla 78’), Mathoho (Majoro 78’), Mashamaite, Masilela, Gould, Letsholonyane, Tshabalala, Baloyi, Parker, Lebese