CAPE TOWN – The Cape Town City players can brace themselves for a dose of the “old Benni” after their 2-1 defeat to Kaizer Chiefs at Newlands on Tuesday night.
City coach Benni McCarthy wasn’t a happy camper after his team’s poor second-half performance.
He will take advantage of the international break to forget about football and spend time with his family in Scotland.
But when he returns he is going back to being the “old Benni”, he says.
“I thought I would take a calmer approach to coaching this season but maybe I need to go back to my old ways,” McCarthy said. “That means me letting my players know exactly how I feel when they perform below what I know they are capable of. No mincing of words, they need to hear the truth.”
Riyaad Norodien of Cape Town City takes on Reeve Frosler of Kaizer Chiefs on Tuesday. Photo: Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix
Who can blame the coach after watching his charges stop playing in the second half, protecting their lead. A game that should have been dead and buried was anything, but as Chiefs came alive in the second half and ran away with things.
Meanwhile, Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp is delighted with some of his new signings and says he can now be more “tactically” flexible.
Kearyn Baccus, who came on as a substitute in the second half and got the winner 10 minutes from time, got a special mention from his coach as one of the new faces in the squad along with Lazarous Kambole in the heart of the midfield and Samir Nurkovic up front.
“These three did a great job and showed that we picked the right players and now have depth in numbers in most of the important positions in the team, which is different from the season before,” said Middendorp.
“I can be tactically flexible to change when things aren’t going right for us, we saw that against City who play a similar style to SuperSport.
So I am pleased with what’s been delivered so far in the league and we move on to the next challenge.”