Ahead of their match against Kaizer Chiefs this weekend, SuperSport United head coach Kaitano Tembo has spoken of his respect and admiration of his counterpart, Stuart Baxter.
Tembo served as assistant to Baxter, during the Englishman’s stint at the Tshwane club, and he says Baxter showed a lot of confidence in him.
Apart from admiring his ability as a coach, Tembo also spoke of the character of Baxter.
“Look to start with that, all I know is that coach Stuart is a very good coach,” Tembo said in the pre-match press conference
“I think he has played a huge role in my development as a coach. He is someone who really believed in me, he gave me an opportunity to see the game in a different way. He trusted me, he had confidence in me.
“I remember, at some point, I went to TP Mazembe, he wasn’t feeling well, and he just said, this is an opportunity for you to create your own personality as a coach. And if you go there do well, that’s your success. If you don’t do well, I’ll take the blame, and it showed what kind of person he is.”
Tembo also believes that Baxter is slowing turning Chiefs to how he wants them to play and is expecting a tough match on Sunday.
“He is a coach who’s always coming up with new ideas, a training session, there’s always something new to learn. And I think it’s just a matter of time before Chiefs can start playing the way he wants them to play,” he added.
“So that’s why I’m very aware that this is not going to be an easy game, it’s gonna be a very tough game against a team that you can see that they’re starting to play the way he wants them to play, with a lot of enjoyment, a lot of freedom, and he is also very tactically disciplined.
“So looking at the games that he has played, there’s a few changes as well, in terms of how he’s approaching the games now.
“And I know it’s going to be a tough game and we have to be ready, we have to prepare well for this game.”
SuperSport host Chiefs at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium on Sunday, with kickoff scheduled for 17:30.