Kaizer Chiefs interim coach Cavin Johnson says there was no need to sign players in the January window that just passed, because it is his job to improve the quality that is already at the club.
Chiefs started the second half of the season with a 0-0 draw with Royal AM, which brought questions about why their attacking department was not reinforced.
A total of six league goals have been scored between Ranga Chivaviro, Christian Saile, and Ashley du Preez, while Jassond Gonzalez has yet to find the net but Johnson insists it’s his job to improve those players instead of just “buying success”.
“As I said, when we took over, if I was a coach that came in with a group of people with 30 plus and said you’re not good enough, it means I’ve not taken my work that I can do with a group of players and make them better,” he said on Thursday.
“That is the reason why we did not sign anybody in the transfer window. I think what we have in the club is good enough to take us to the end of the season, with many points and a trophy.
“It’s about what we do on the pitch, how we handle those strikers, because we do have quality strikers, we have Ashley, Ranga, Gonzalez, Saile, Mshini, Mmodi, who can all play strikers, and therefor we have to work with them constantly.
“I don’t think you can buy success, you can buy good players to add to what you have but you need to work on a lot of things and respect your strikers.
“You’ve got to work more with your midfielders and strikers, because they bring the ball to the strikers. The strikers don’t just get the ball out of the air, there has to be someone who gives them the ball.
“How they receive the ball and how they execute the ball is what we get paid for.”
On their opponents, Milford, the second-tier side who stand in their way of the Round of 16 in the Nedbank Cup, Johnson admits they are largely an unknown group that they’ve needed to work hard to study ahead of the game this weekend.
“We normally talk about opposition before games, but Milford are a secret, they bought Uthongathi’s status, and not much is known about them,” he said about the KZN-based side.
“But we’ve seen some of their players, Zama, makes the team tick a little bit. We also looked at the other 10 players and there are some of them that good.
“The last two games that I’ve watched La Masia against Sundowns, and Highlands Park vs Sekhukhune, both those games were tight in the first half an hour, Highlands Park even took them to penalties.
“We’re up against a first division team as Kaizer Chiefs and and from our point of view, wer are prepared for this,”
“We know what it means for the club, we know what it means for our supporters. We play at home, and we give them all the respect.
“But know we’re favourites on the day, we know we need to work extra hard. When we play NFD teams in pre-season and when we have FIFA breaks, we always have a hard time, so we need to up our game 200% as Kaizer Chiefs, we prepared well and looking for a good game on Sunday.”
Chiefs take on Milford on Sunday for the last 32 Nedbank Cup clash at FNB Stadium (18h00).
