Coach Benni McCarthy can’t put a finger on why his Cape Town City players are under-performing.
He mentioned this after the 1-1 home draw with Golden Arrows at Cape Town Stadium on Sunday.
Whether he can rally his troops to produce the goods away to Orlando Pirates on Saturday remains to be seen. The prospect of mixing it with one of SA’s glamour clubs should be enough motivation for the Citizens.
Through six rounds they have been shaky, with one win - over Stellenbosch FC - and four draws and a loss at home to table-topping Kaizer Chiefs.
It could have been four wins had they been able to hold on to leads against Baroka FC, Chiefs and Arrows.
Instead, they failed to play for the full 90 minutes, were woeful defending their line and the net result is City are well down on the table in 11th place on seven points from a possible 18.
Against Arrows in the 87th minute, a clumsy challenge from left-back Ebrahim Seedat cost his side a penalty that was converted by the visitors to get them a share of the spoils.
Kermit Erasmus, one of the few City players to shine this season, netted the opener with the head in the 52nd minute for his second goal in as many games and fourth overall.
Fellow forward Thabo Nodada, who scored two of his side’s three goals against SuperSport United on his return from injury last weekend, couldn’t follow up and that was down to the playmakers in the midfield not feeding the frontline quality ball, especially in the opening half.
Defensively most of the nine goals conceded have been through a lack of concentration.
The return of Taariq Fielies couldn’t have come at a better time for McCarthy who complimented his centre-back for a great game that nearly produced a goal after a fine strike in the penalty area was well saved by the Arrows goalkeeper.
“Against SuperSport we let in three, against Arrows we concede one through a silly mistake but as a defensive unit we were much better, and Taariq’s return from a long break played a big part in that,”
said McCarthy. “That said, as a team we’re a shadow of the team that performed so well last season. When we have a team on the ropes, instead of putting them away we allow them back into the game and we throw away points like there’s no tomorrow. It doesn’t look like we’re going to be challenging for the title or even a top-three place if we continue like we are.”