Skipper: We are on target
Coaches and players come and go. That is how Khama Billiat (pictured) responded when asked about the departure of Giovanni Solinas from Kaizer Chiefs, the coach who hailed the nimble-footed Zimbabwean as the best player in South Africa and even bowed to him after matches.
Billiat said it was unfortunate things didn’t work out for the Italian who was replaced by Ernst Middendorp last weekend.
“He is a good coach and it was good working with him. We tried, but maybe we didn’t adjust quickly enough to his philosophy. But it is like that in football – coaches and players come and go,” said Billiat.
He said Solinas’ expectations of him were no different to what the club and supporters expect from each player and he revealed he thrives on pressure.
“The minute I signed the contract with Chiefs I felt the pressure. There was so much expected from the club. It is good to have pressure because it makes you work hard. There is no time to relax. It makes you a better player.”
On life under the German, Billiat said it was still early stages and they were still working on their overall system, but he said it looked promising, especially after their win over SuperSport United on Wednesday night.
“It is always like that when there is a new coach. There is renewed energy and different training methods – it has always been like that. But the challenge for us is to stick to his ideas because whenever there is a new coach there is always renewed energy. We have to keep that energy going.
“We are still working on a few things. We are still getting used to the way he wants us to do things, but it is looking promising,” he said.
Amakhosi are in Durban tonight where they host Elgeco Plus in a Caf Confederation Cup first leg at Moses Mabhida Stadium at 8.15pm. Billiat said every team who play against Chiefs are desperate to beat them.
“Chiefs are a big club and everyone wants to beat them – it’s a great feeling to beat Chiefs. But it is also exciting for us to win games.
“We look at it positively – I look at it positively. We know every team wants to beat us and that makes us better because we have to come up with something new for every game,” he said. For Maccabi FC, it was always going to be about swimming against the tide and the National First Division side have done fairly well so far, sitting in sixth position with 18 points after 13 games.
Club captain Thapelo Tshilo (above) said they are not entirely happy with what they have done so far but he would give the team a pass if he were to grade them.
“So far it has been good, Maccabi are a new team in the NFD and we’ve set a target in terms of the number of points we want to be on after 15 games and I think we are okay, we will make the target,” said the former Jomo Cosmos and Polokwane City defender.
Tshilo is one of the players on whom coach Mokete Tsotetsi has built his team around and he has led from the front with some telling performances at the back while the likes of Collins Mbesuma and Lebogang Mokoena have also been doing the business up front.
Maccabi’s next assignment is a game against Mbombela United away at Kanyamazane Stadium this afternoon and Tshilo believes they can steal a point or three from the second-placed side.
“We don’t want to put pressure on ourselves, but we will push. We have two more games before the break and we want to get as many points off them as we can.
“We have not been doing well at home, but away we’ve been getting the points and although I can’t say we will beat Mbombela, we will give everything.
“We have won three games at home but we are aware we need to make Dobsonville Stadium our fortress,” he said.
Maccabi wrap up their firstround matches with a tough encounter against NFD leaders Stellenbosch FC at Dobsonville Stadium next weekend.
Jomo Cosmos will meanwhile make the trip to struggling Uthongathi hoping for a better experience in KwaZulu-Natal this time around after they were beaten by Royal Eagles last weekend.