Kaizer Chiefs interim coach Cavin Johnson says their lack of goals has been painful after they suffered their 10th league defeat of the season.
Chiefs lost 1-0 to Richards Bay on Sunday at the King Zweltihini Stadium which leaves them in 10th place, 23 points off league leaders Mamelodi Sundowns, who have three games in hand.
Their chase for continental football seems all but over, with now the target being in the top eight come end of the 2023/24 season, which started with Molefi Ntseki as head coach before Johnson was lured in as caretaker from his Head of Youth role.
Chiefs have scored 19 goals in 24 games and conceded 19 goals in the DStv Premiership this season, but it’s been the form since the AFCON 2023 break that’s been alarming.
In the nine games played, they’ve failed to score in seven of those games, losing four league outings and getting knocked out of the Nedbank Cup by second-tier side Milford.
“In some moments, we’re all not psychologists we’re just technical coaches, football coaches, we’re not psychologists, we have to look at them, and understand why this is happening, the combinations, why we’re not having fun,” Johnson said.
“You try and do that at training, creating free goal-scoring opportunities to give them that feel, but it’s still not happening, maybe I need to take them for gun shooting and they’ll be better. But at the moment we have to dig deep into our technical staff, to see what we can do and make the finishing, a finished product.”
When asked how this lack of results and goals has felt, Johnson stated it’s hurting him as he’s been traditionally an attack-minded coach over the course of his career.
“I’m the coach, it’s very, very painful. But it’s always difficult when this happens, your training is based around finishing and when you base it around finishing, you expect them to finish! And you expect to win with goals,” he added.
“You guys know what type of coach I am, a lot of coaches say the best defence wins leagues, I think differently, we have to have the best attackers to win the leagues.”
Chiefs return to action on Saturday against SuperSport United at FNB Stadium with a chance to move back into the top-reight.
