Malesela not even thinking of relegation
CHIPPA United coach Dan Malesela says the word relegation is not part of his vocabulary, even though his team could go down if they do not pull up their socks in the second half of the Premier Soccer League.
The Port Elizabeth side are 11th on the log with 16 points from 14 games, and are only four points clear of 16th-placed Baroka.
Regardless of the results on paper, the former Pirates and Sundowns coach is confident that his team will not go further down the log.
“I don’t think in my life I have been in a situation where one has to fight relegation,” Malesela said.
“I’d rather be called to save a club from being relegated and I have always been successful [in doing] that, as an individual.
“We are being reasonable. The issue we discussed with the players is that we find ourselves on the other side of the log, which is not good.
“But it does not mean we are a bad team. It just means that we need to focus and really think about the things we do and where we want to be.
“We need to get ourselves away from the position we are in and that is our immediate focus.”
Malesela said to think of a favourable finishing position at the moment was out of his mind.
It would only come once the team had got away from where they are.
The aim is to take each game as it comes and not pressure themselves.
While in preseason camp, he said, the team also looked at better ways of approaching matches.
“Do we look at points and say: ‘We want to get so many points from these matches’? No, we are not going to do that.
“Sometimes we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, saying: ‘If we can get maybe 12 points from four matches’ – that will put pressure on us, because once you don’t get the first one you will start to be under pressure.
“We are going to be realistic in our approach,” Malesela said.
The Chilli Boys yesterday officially unveiled new signings Yurigg Conwood from the team’s development side, and Pirates players Justice Chabalala, Donald Mokondeka and Sello Japtha, who were part of the swap deal that saw James Okwuosa and Marc van Heerden join the Buccaneers.
The club also confirmed the return of Nkosinathi Mthiyane last week, but he has since made a turnaround and signed with Golden Arrows.
Malesela said he would not force anyone to be part of his team.
“Soft deals sometimes [are] not really controlled by the players.
“In the interim you get other clubs knowing and having information that this player is going to a particular club.
“The agreements were done with Orlando Pirates, so the club made the official announcement, but obviously the player thought otherwise.”