Kaizer Chiefs maybe not being bullied any more, but need to start bullying: Johnson

Kaizer Chiefs may not be on the receiving end of bullying any more but they need to start doing some bullying of their own, interim coach Cavin Johnson suggested after his team laboured to a 1-0 DStv Premiership win against Richards Bay FC on Saturday.

The 31°C heat at FNB Stadium might have been a contributing factor to their sluggishness, but Johnson was still not pleased with his team’s performance against the second-last-placed battlers even though Chiefs went to three wins in a row for the first time this season.

Johnson compared building a strong Chiefs, after almost a decade of trophyless underachievement, to weaving a cloth. He said some of the stitches made in a tough 1-0 away victory against Polokwane City in Amakhosi’s last match were undone against Bay.

The coach was asked if Chiefs should be bullying opponents like Bay at home rather than edging victories.

“Remember, when the league started people were bullying Chiefs,” he responded.

“And that’s exactly the cloth we talk about. We need to make sure we get to that level. And getting to that level is [a] major [undertaking].

“For example, my wife and I know each other, we know exactly how we move, what we do — and that is the cohesion you need to have in a team of the magnitude of Chiefs.

“And ja, you spotted it, I looked at it too; we need to be that way, we need to get there. But to get there is difficult.

“Because like I say in the beginning of the season we were bullied. Now, after three wins, maybe the bullying is a bit over, maybe we are going to get more confident. It’s [about] what we do on the training pitch.”

Johnson said he had mixed feelings about Chiefs finally managing a run of three wins.

“In one way, yes, maybe it is [a positive], but not for me hey. I think we need to be much better. And like I told the players, ‘It’s three in a row, yes we celebrate’, but for me that’s not Kaizer Chiefs.

“Yes, I might sound not happy. I have to be happy [with the result] but I’m also the leader of this team and the leader has to take the responsibility for a lot of things.

“When we lose I take the responsibility and when we win I do too. And the players have to feel what [the reality is].

“We stitched the cloth halfway in the game before, and now we took a few threads out so we’ve got to stitch again.”

Johnson has been trying to instil a more direct approach. He said what was produced on the field against Bay was not what was planned.

“It’s important we identify, quicker, when to score the goals or when to push to have the action finished.

“Today we had a bit of a challenge. We brought in [Jasond] Gonzalez and [Edson] Castillo as starters and maybe that changed things a bit, but they have been playing. We also brought in [Dillon] Solomons, we tried Ashley [du Preez] again to see how good he is going forward.

“There were a few changes we brought in, like with [substitute] Njabulo [Ngcobo] and where he is normally supposed to play.

“I just thought maybe it’s supposed to be right — at the training it works; on the field, with a few thousand supporters around you, it’s not going like you want it to.”

Chiefs meet Sekhukhune United at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday in their last game before the break for the Africa Cup of Nations.