Chippa United coach Dan Malesela has switched his focus to the Nedbank Cup quarterfinal fixture against Richards Bay at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane on Saturday at 3.30pm.
After two back-to-back league defeats against Orlando Pirates and Wednesday’s nights 1-0 loss to AmaZulu in the DStv Premiership, Malesela says he needs a solid and strong formation for Saturdays encounter.
But most importantly, the former TS Galaxy mentor, 55, hopes a win against Richards Bay could trigger something in his players that could set them back to winning matches again in the league.
“We find ourselves in a situation where we just come from two losses in the league,” Malesela said.
“Obviously we are trying to redeem ourselves through the Nedbank Cup and also try to get back to winning ways again.
“Hopefully with this game that will be that.
“These guys come here, they don’t play like us. We play midweek, weekend, midweek, weekend and included is the travelling as well.
“They will be probably fresher. I don't want to speak on their behalf but we will try to make adjustments and see how we can handle this team.
“We have a bit of an idea as to how they played against Kaizer Chiefs and also their last game against TS Sporting.
“So we need to really see how we could have a good formation of the team because that is the first thing."
Malesela said he needed to have the right players — people who would put pressure on their opponents, but also people able to score goals when afforded that opportunity.
Wednesday’s setback against Usuthu saw the Gqeberha side go six matches without a win in the league.
The Chilli Boys now find themselves slumping deeper and deeper towards the danger zone.
Reflecting on their loss, Malesela said: “We started off succumbing to pressure and we made bad mistakes where we were not supposed to.
“Instead of releasing the ball we wanted to individualise things and that put us under a bit of pressure.
"But it was undue pressure that we really caused ourselves.
“However, thereafter we did fairly well in the second half until we allowed a goal where it didn’t look like there would be a goal.
“So the discipline was not there enough to defend with a bit of emphasis. We should have been emphatic on stopping the cross going through.
“We also did not deal with the resulting hand ball very well until the penalty resulted.
“Thereafter we had chance after chance, even before that. But we never converted.
"And that is what it is.”
The coach said his players needed urgency in their play.
“Unlike everybody else, apart from the teams that are below us, we are in a piteous situation, where we need to understand that we have to knuckle down and play.
“We have to knuckle down and do things correctly. Every chance we get we must use.
“Every single opportunity for the opponents we must try to block.
“We can’t be sitting and trying to blame whoever if that should have been a penalty or that should have been this when we are creating chances that we can score.
“If we score these chances we forget about even what looks like a penalty or something like that, because referees are human beings, they will miss some, they will get some, but we can’t miss chances.
“So we really need to focus on these things, but I think, having said that, we gave a good account of ourselves against a team that has been really winning,” the coach said.
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