Malesela aims to up game despite victory over Chiefs

CHIPPA United coach Dan “Dance” Malesela does not want to read too much into Saturday’s 1-0 win over Kaizer Chiefs in the Premier’s Cup at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane.

And if the Chilli Boys are to avoid fighting relegation come the end of the 2017/18 Absa Premiership league, Malesela said he has to work on his players’ mental strength.

He told journalists on Saturday that he has to work on “fixing” the players’ minds ahead of the start of the season.

“We need to be very stable. We need to be very consistent in terms of our thinking because this game is controlled by this thing, upstairs,” he said pointing to his head.

“So we need to fix our minds so that we can sustain game moments for 90 minutes or even more.”

Malesela said it would be disrespectful to the other 15 teams in the league if he were to predict where they would finish this season, using Saturday’s game as an example.

“You can’t judge through this game, you know, otherwise I’d be disrespecting other PSL clubs. We play Kaizer Chiefs and I’m thinking other PSL clubs are a walkover or something. That would be very wrong of me.

“You can’t judge now. You have to take a number of games in the league and then start saying ‘oh now there’s direction’. And you must understand [with] friendlies sometimes people want to impress to [be in] the starting lineup, and you’d be deceived if you start thinking we have arrived or anything like that,” he said.

Malesela said he was yet to sit with his technical team and players and decide how many points they were targeting this season so that they will