Kaizer Chiefs may be blowing hot and cold, shuffling formations now and then, but coach Stuart Baxter is adamant his players are now attuned to his philosophy.
On the back of a convincing 3-1 thumping of Chippa United on the road last Saturday Chiefs put in a lacklustre display in Tuesday’s goalless draw against TS Galaxy at FNB Stadium. Baxter conceded inconsistency was their undoing but insisted the players have already grasped his style of play.
“I think the players bought in to what we want to do very early. What we’ve been working on is getting the consistency and getting the focus... that’s the difficult part. We’ve seen very often, in almost all the games, where we play good football and we look good but unfortunately in the games like tonight [Tuesday night] when we’re not happy this is the period when we lose our focus and lose our shape and your self-belief,” said Baxter.
Since his return to Amakhosi in June last year, Baxter hasn’t been scared to persist with players he believes in even if they’re underperforming. The Amakhosi mentor has addressed the propensity of keeping certain players in the XI even when the chips are down, insinuating he doesn’t want to come across as someone who doesn’t know his best XI.
“You’ve got to temper your desire to bring in new faces... you have to temper that with the fact that if you do that and then you don’t get the results you want then it smacks of panic and then you’ll be accused of not knowing your best XI and dah dah dah,” said Baxter.
Baxter also weighed in on the issue of promising star Nkosingiphile Ngcobo’s limited game time, revealing he has failed to find a suitable role for him in the current system.
“I’ve struggled. I’ve said this to the technical staff, I’ve said this to Mshini. I’ve struggled to really find the best role for him. That’s not saying he can’t play in the system that we play, but we’ve tried him as a false nine, we’ve tried him coming from the right, in the pocket in midfield, and behind the front players,” said Baxter.
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