18 Oct 2015

Despite collecting maximum points against Green Lovers on Saturday, Mochudi Centre Chiefs’ overall poor performance continues to baffle coach, Mike “Dubula” Sithole. Chiefs won 1-0 against Green Lovers at Molepolole Sports Complex. 

Since the beMOBILE Premiership started, Chiefs have been unconvincing in basic aspects of the game such as ball possession and free flowing attack they were known for in the past. 

In an interview, Sithole said the team’s poor performance, especially in front of goals still baffled him.

“For a long time now I have been talking about this issue. We practice shooting and all the necessary stuff at training everyday, but what baffles me even more is that at training the guys do everything well, but when it comes to the game, it’s a different story altogether,” he said. 

Sithole said his priority was to find illusive finishing formula, which he was confident that they would soon get right.

“Should we get the finishing right, then we will be complete because according to me, the team is not playing badly overall,” he said.

He said a number of injuries, especially in defence where the likes of Ontse Ntesa were missing also forced him to play with a make-shift defence.

On why he started with players such as Senatla Molefhe, who had been brilliant in the past games from the bench, Sithole said he did not want to put young players under pressure with too much expectation.

“Sometimes it’s a matter of strategy, what we want from players is that they win games for us, and if a player can win a game for us from the bench then it’s fine. Dirang Moloi has won games for us from the bench in the past and today he was in the first 11, so I prefer shuffling my players rather than starting with the same faces every day,” he said.

Despite concern over unsatisfactory performance, Sithole was happy for the maximum points.

Green Lovers mentor, Onthusitse “Chips” Kootswele said despite losing the game, it was not a bad performance looking at the calibre of their opponent.

“We are premiership rookies and we were playing the defending champions, so to lose so narrowly against them is nothing to be ashamed of,” Kootswele said. Ends