Chiefs Left With Questions After Home Defeat

It wasn’t the result Kaizer Chiefs wanted, especially at home, but Stuart Baxter gave a lot of credit to his Stellenbosch counterpart for a plan well

 

It wasn’t the result Kaizer Chiefs wanted, especially at home, but Stuart Baxter gave a lot of credit to his Stellenbosch counterpart for a plan well executed.

“I think the first 15 minutes was ok, it was the high tempo we wanted and we pinned them back. But in their first attack I think they got free and broke our press, got a runner in, even though not too dangerous it was a bit of a warning shot,” the Englishman in his reaction of their 1-0 DStv Premiership defeat to Stellies on Tuesday.

Amakhosi were building momentum, or so they thought, until their visitors asked questions of them, they could not answer on the day.

It was to be expected, given coach Steve Barker’s men came to FNB Stadium unbeaten in eight matches and held on to their record to go level on points with log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns, although the Brazilians have two games in hand.

“I don’t know if that made us a bit apprehensive,” Baxter said of the aggressive nature in which Stellenbosch attacked in the first half.

“But we became a little static and they took over the game, controlled the game quite well. They played a low block, I thought Steve had them quite well organised and were comfortable and the goal came during that.”

The wonder strike from Ashley du Preez before half-time was the winner in the end, leaving Baxter to question the approach from his charges.

“I thought out decision making when we were in good situations was not good enough. Even though we played more quickly in our combination play in the second half, we weren’t as committed to the movements we’ve been doing. We didn’t have the quality to break down what was a solid block. You’ve got to have plenty of movement and plenty of awareness if you are going to break down that sort of compact defence. I don’t think it was a bad performance, but it was a performance without the edge. We didn’t read things early enough,” he explained.