Chiefs coach Baxter: 'We shouldn't only be a good team when we have fans in the stadium'

Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter says Chiefs have suffered the most from playing without fans but that’s no reason for poor performances by his side.

Chiefs have not won silverware since the 2014-2015 season and their fortunes have not changed for the better since they started playing without their intimidating supporters from 2020.

In the build-up to their surprising 1-0 defeat to Golden Arrows on Saturday, Chiefs and Bafana Bafana star player Keagan Dolly suggested the so-called small teams now come to FNB Stadium and play with no pressure as the Soweto giants are missing their “12th” man.

Baxter agreed with Dolly’s view to a certain degree, but said players should be professional enough to give their best even without supporters in the stadium.

“I think if you look globally at the teams, during the Covid-19 lockdowns and the empty stadiums that have the most fervent fans probably suffered most. Liverpool without their fans were a completely different proposition.

“Having said that, I still feel we should demand professionalism and a professional performance from ourselves to negate that.

“I don’t think we should say we are only a good team when we have our fans in the stadium. We should want to play for our fans anyway.

“I think it’s a tragedy that the fans aren’t at the stadiums, honestly, but at the same time that would be selfish of us because we have great support. I think we should still have that motivation.”

Saturday's win for Arrows was the Durban side's first in the league away against Chiefs since 2011.

“He [Dolly] is right in terms of the opponents, they probably enjoy the game more coming to an empty FNB Stadium with a beautiful pitch and they can play quite relaxed.

“From my own point of view, our performance has to be better than it was [against Arrows], with or without fans.”

Baxter was disappointed by his senior players in the defeat against Arrows

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that stadiums will be opened for professional sports events at 50% capacity from Wednesday, but the Premier Soccer League (PSL) has been silent so far about the development.

Chiefs will face relegation-threatened teams Chippa United and TS Galaxy after the Fifa international break.

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