Amakhosi interim head coach Cavin Johnson is looking forward to his fourth assignment at the helm of Amakhosi, as Chiefs, who were last in action on the 11^th November in a 1-0 league loss against Orlando Pirates, now get ready for their second successive derby. Johnson addressed a number of issues as Chiefs look to dominate in Dobsonville against an improving Swallows team. The Chiefs mentor spoke about his opponents, challenges and injuries ahead of the game.

Time off through International break 

Sometimes dealing with the international break can be bad. In our case, we only had three players Edson Castillo, Thatayaone Ditlhokwe and Sibongiseni Mthethwa on international duty, so we were able to build and get a little bit fresher, get to another level of playing within the competition. This is how we dealt with it this time around. We did not give the guys time off. We have a long way to go in order to make our name better known within the league. We had to work on a lot of different strategies in order to be better going forward. Hopefully we are able to do that when we play our next game.

Time at the helm so far

It has been a big challenge. We have had three games back to back. We lost two, and won one. At the same time, the last three weeks have been an eye opener for many of us. Now we have been able to analyse the players in a better way, be it tactically, mentally and physically. These are some of the challenges I have been facing since taking over as an interim coach. There are no excuses, though. Kaizer Chiefs are a quality team. They have quality players. What we need to do as a group, myself included, is come to the party go to the game and play the best XI that we can and play the best 90 minutes that we can put out.

What about Swallows and another derby 

You have to view Swallows with respect. They are not sitting third on the log for no reason. They are improving. You have to give credit to their technical team, led by Steve Komphela. We respect them in that we do have a game plan for them just like they have a game plan for us. We are going to Dobsonville hoping we have the majority of the crowd supporting us and we can execute our game plan, and use it on Moroka Swallows to come up with the points.

Injury Update 

We have Keegan Dolly, Itumeleng Khune, Ashley Du Preez and Thatayaone Ditlhokwe all out with injuries, I am not the coach who says that I want that type of player when I have 29 other players. The players that have been training their utmost this week will be the players who will go out. I just hope that my other players recover as soon as possible, to give us a headache in terms of selection. There are good signs; Ashley is out on the pitch and running a little bit. According to the medical report that I have, he will return at the end of December.