Benni McCarthy’s toughest job in his maiden season as a head coach in the Premier Soccer League was dealing with player’s egos‚ he said as he prepared for the last game of the season with Cape Town City against AmaZulu in Durban on Saturday.
“Dealing with players’ personalities has been tough because you’ve got so many different kinds. The thing I found the hardest was that you cannot please everyone‚” he said.
“As nice as you are trying to be with players‚ and as much as you are trying to satisfy them and make players happy and make them comfortable‚ at the end of the day you’ve got a squad of 26 and you can play only 11 of them.
“The 12th‚ the 13th‚ 14th‚ 15th man that you left out of the starting 11‚ is going to look at you like King Kong‚ just waiting for you to fail.
“Trying to keep everyone happy at the same time is impossible. That’s been my hardest burden‚” he revealed.
McCarthy has a chance to secure a top-five finish for City this season despite topsy-turvy form but has sent out mixed signals about whether he will return for the second year of his contract.
“At times you make mistakes because you try and do what you see but you can’t see everything. Sometimes you let a player get away with not having the best of games for a while but he still finds himself in the starting lineup. Other players then aren’t happy with that.
“Learning to manage that better and not to have players drifting away because they can’t get in the team is something to really work on‚” added the former Bafana Bafana goal ace as City headed up the coast to complete their season.
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