JOHNSON ON ‘FRUSTRATED’ CHIVAVIRO
KAIZER CHIEFS interim coach Cavin Johnson believes it’s frustration that made striker Ranga Chivaviro act out when subbed in their 1-0 victory over Polokwane City at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday.
The 31-year-old was one of the seven new players signed by Amakhosi at the beginning of the season.
Chivaviro was born in Limpopo, South Africa, to a Zimbabwean father and a South African mother and grew up in Mpumalanga but is open to playing for the Zimbabwe senior national team, the Warriors.
The 30-year-old hasn’t played for his country of birth and in an interview on South African radio station Metro FM, he revealed there was a talk about him playing for Zimbabwe.
He joined Kaizer Chiefs from Marumo Gallants where he scored 10 goals in 20 League matches and seven in the CAF Confederation Cup.
However, he hasn’t found his scoring boots at Naturena where he has just one goal in 12 matches across all competitions.
The robust forward wasn’t happy when he was replaced in Polokwane with Johnson saying it’s all in the character of a striker to behave like that when they are not getting goals.
The coach further added that it’s all in the player’s mind and Chivaviro also needs to remember the club he is currently playing for because the pressure is different from where he has been.
“I have to go back and make sure his head is clean because you know what strikers are like,” the Chiefs coach said.
“Strikers are like goalkeepers, they are mad. Sometimes they are mad they want to score goals because that’s what fuels their football body when they score goals. And yes I think he should have scored one he had a nice chance, he made it himself, and he put it on his left foot.
“I thought if he was just a little bit calmer the right side of the goal was open but he takes a snapshot. If he just pushed it in it would have been a goal.
“But not to be today and yes he does come from an area where he scored I think 12 or 13 goals in a season.
“So all that stuff as far as a striker is concerned, normally plays in your mind, but the big thing that he has to realise is that he is not playing for Marumo Gallants anymore or for AJ United; he is playing for Kaizer Chiefs and that comes with so, so much pressure.
“Besides being a good player, besides being a good person that comes with [pressure] a lot of times because every game you play, whatever centre-back you are playing against is not going to play at 50 percent; he is going to play at a 150 percent. So you have to up your game to 200 percent and that’s the difference.” −