CHIEFS CHARACTER QUESTIONED BY COACH
Kaizer Chiefs interim coach Cavin Johnson has questioned the character of his players after they twice ceded a lead in Saturday’s derby and eventually lost 3-2 to Orlando Pirates, dropping down to seventh in the DStv Premiership standings as a result.
Ashley du Preez’s two first half goals saw Chiefs ahead but Pirates fought back after the break to complete a league double over AmaKhosi for the first time in 15 years.
“On the pitch, you have to have the character. And I thought in some moments, when they got the ball from us and it lead to their goals ... I think we could have stopped the ball long before but it’s about character,” said Johnson, who has now won four and lost four of his 12 games in charge since taking over from Molefi Ntseki late last year.
“But it’s like I’ve said, ‘football is made out of moments’. And in those moments, it’s what we need to improve as a group and as a player within a team.
“I thought we could have maybe pushed a little bit high on top. I thought our players dropped a little bit too much. But even when we had the 2-1 lead, I thought we could have at least tried to hold the ball a bit better. We could have been a lot quicker out of our blocks and sometimes the players have to understand that,” Johnson added in his analysis of the game.
“There’s no time to be looking around. Tactically, I thought we had it right, except for the third goal. But for the other goals, it was just a matter of being too slow out of the blocks in order to stop the ball from getting into danger areas.”
Johnson said Chiefs had shown too different faces in the game.
“For us, I think it was a very good first half but second half we played in patches, and we did not maintain the advantages that we had during the game. You have three points in the bag, then you have one, then you have three again, then you have one, and then you have none.
“I thought two goals we gave them were very soft. As far as I see. I don’t think they worked hard enough to get those goals. But in saying that, we played a good first but second half, we were a bit out of it. We are disappointed but it was a good game,” he added