CAPE TOWN - Cape Town City head coach Jan Olde Riekerink knows exactly what is wrong with his stuttering team - they just need to slow it all down.
After turning around their 2019-20 campaign through some excellent performances during the “bio-bubble” completion to the season, City have not quite found their rhythm this term.
Orlando Pirates dumped City out of the MTN8 last weekend, while on Saturday they were fortunate to hold on for a point in their Premiership opener against Chippa United at Cape Town Stadium.
There isn’t much time for Olde Riekerink to rectify things as next up for City will be a tricky trip to Harry Gwala Stadium to take on Maritzburg United on Wednesday (7.30pm kickoff).
The Dutchman will, though, try to get the message across to his players that everything does not have to happen at breakneck speed.
“These guys really want to perform. I felt that we did everything at 100km/* and sometimes you need to have the patience to build up an opportunity. We took so many risks with so many balls. We are too much in a rush,” Olde Riekerink said.
“I think we can improve in terms of playing against teams that will wait for the opportunity and transition. That’s a more general team idea. We have to learn that, playing against an opponent coming to Cape Town for one point, maybe we need to be more patient to create chances.”
Chippa certainly benefited from City’s hastiness on the ball and could easily have punished the home team more were it not for Peter Leeuwenburgh’s heroics in goal.
Olde Riekerink doesn’t want to stifle his team’s creativity and ambition to attempt the difficult pass, but at the same time they need to be mindful of not conceding possession so easily.
“I don’t think we played very well the first half. We made the same mistakes, but I think Chippa came back after the goal in a rhythm that was very difficult for us. The problems we had in the first half were the same as the second half. They had a few moments for the counter-attack. We were not strong enough in ball possession, and the moment you lose the ball you leave yourself open to the counter-attack.”
@ZaahierAdams
IOL Sport