Chippa United’s head coach Vusumuzi Vilakazi believes his squad have lost their edge, with their drive and hunger for victory slipping away as complacency sets in.
Vilakazi expressed this view when he faced the media after Chippa’s heavy 5-1 defeat to Amazulu over the weekend.
The Gqeberha-based side are 13th on the log with 24 points from 26 matches.
They are just four points clear of automatic relegation and only three points clear of the relegation playoff spot.
“All the time I try by all means to protect my team and my players, but I think they need to align their minds in terms of making sure they dig deep and think of the badge of the club more than themselves,” Vilakazi said.
“The contribution, I think, is not the same compared to when I arrived here.
“When I arrived in this team, there was hunger and the ambition that we would definitely save the team.
“But I think that faded a bit.
“I see my players being too relaxed now and being complacent in making sure the team does not go down. That’s unfortunate.
“We will try and redeem ourselves. We have no other option but to make sure we redeem ourselves.”
Vilakazi is the fifth coach at Chippa this season as the club desperately try to navigate their way out of the relegation situation.
Sinethemba Badela was shown the door only two matches into the season.
He was replaced by Musa Nyatama, who was replaced by Morgan Mammila, who later made way for Luc Eymael.
When asked if the club’s turnover of coaches at the start of the season may have contributed to the long-term position, Vilakazi said: “It does. I must be honest.
“It’s not easy to deal with the psychological aspect of the players, especially when everyone was saying we were down and out.
“You have to try and bring back hope to the players, and that is not an easy thing to do because the players are not mentally equal.
“There are players who you can try and instil something in, and they can adopt it as quickly as possible, but others may struggle.
“But I think we have done that part, and we have worked very hard on making sure we see a Chippa that are revived and a Chippa that have an appetite for playing because they are playing good football.
“Even today, good football was there, but the unfortunate part is that good football needs to be complemented with goals for you to win games.
“I still believe and trust the process. Whatever happened before, we are not going back to that.
“We can only take the positives from today going forward.”
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