While Eric Tinkler was delighted to win the Coach of the Month for April, the Cape Town City head coach says it’s not about him, but about the collective effort put in by everyone involved.
Tinkler walked away with the prize for April after a five-game streak in the month, where they won three, and drew two matches.
Tinkler paid tribute to his squad and said they have worked incredibly hard, and taken responsibility.
“Ja, obviously, I’m elated to have been awarded this award for coach of the month,” Tinkler told media at a press conference.
“But it’s not about me to be honest. It’s about how we’ve responded second half of the season. And I think ultimately, everybody deserves the accolade not only myself, that obviously starts with the players, and how they responded.
“Second half of the season, it could have been very easy for them to return from the break extremely despondent. After how we ended up losing that MTN8 final against Sundowns, we had three chances to win that game through penalties. And you could see the disappointment on the faces of the players after and that took a lot of steam out of them I think. And then the way we ended off that first half of the season with a loss away from home to SuperSport United.
“So I have to give a lot of credit to the players in terms of how they responded in the second half, even though we again started with a loss against Royal AM in the Nedbank. But ja, then we went on a run in the league unbeaten, keeping 14 clean sheets only conceding four goals in this back half of the season.
“So I have to give a lot of credit to them. Because they believed that it was possible for us to climb the table, the intensity in training started to match the performances, players started taking the responsibility, both on and off the field. With the massive changes that we did make, seven players leaving, I think people started holding up their hands, seeing an opportunity to get themselves into that starting lineup.
“So I have to give credit to them, you know, because that’s them that’s on the field. They are the ones who have to ensure that we collect the type of results that we’ve collected since the turn of the year.”
At @CapeTownCityFC with #DStvPrem coach of the month for April Eric Tinkler… pic.twitter.com/phzUYfI5LZ
— Rob Delport (@FMSouthAfrica) May 16, 2022
Tinkler also credited everyone in his technical team for the work they’ve put in.
“And obviously, my technical team, because we have a very small squad in comparison to I think all the teams in the league,” he continued.
“And Lee Miles in terms of the conditioning of the players throughout the season, it’s been very, very good. We haven’t had any major injuries, which is always a major risk when you have a small team such as ours. So a lot of credit needs to go to him and Andrew, for ensuring that everybody was fit and ready. I think the longest injury layoff was only a two week period. And I think that was Darwin. That was out for a couple of weeks but everybody else maybe a week maximum, and it was small injuries, more knock injuries than muscular injuries.
“So I have to give a lot of credit to him and Andrew and then obviously, Paul, in terms of our match analysis, or post-match analysis or individual analysis or collective analysis. He’s worked tirelessly, especially during the break so when we came back, we could identify which areas we needed to fix in terms of our system, in terms of our strategy, in terms of our defensive displays.
“And then obviously also Diogo in terms of what he was providing me in terms of his assistance, especially when we needed to fix our defensive displays. That was a weakness we already had the season that I joined, was the fact that we conceded way too many goals. That first half of the season, we still struggled to change that.
“But we managed to work on it quite extensively during that January period. And that’s been our strength ever since. And so ja, like I said, collectively, I have to congratulate everyone our Chairman, for being brave enough to make that decision of moving those seven players when we moved them.
“You know, that was obviously a difficult task for him. Because obviously, there is the fear and the danger, that it doesn’t work out for you. And at that stage of the season , we were laying 12 I think in the league So, a lot of bravery shown from him. But obviously with all the experience that he has it worked for us, and the players obviously that joined us in the second half of the season, everybody held up their hand and said, I’m available.
“So, like I said to you before, I’m very happy to receive the reward, but truthfully, it’s not about me, it’s about the collective, what we’ve done together.”
Story: Rob Delport.
ENGLISH iDiski Times Edition 51 – Josef Zinnbauer & Brandon Petersen
