‘It is about trying to deal with the space behind us and to always be first to the ball,’ Ditlhokwe told reporters
Thatayaone Ditlhokwe says Kaizer Chiefs must be wary of the pace of Stellenbosch FC when the two teams meet in the Betway Premiership on Wednesday evening at FNB Stadium.
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Amakhosi were hit by a fast counter attack from Cape Town City on Sunday as they slumped to a 1-0 loss. That was already their fourth league defeat of the campaign.
Chiefs’ Ditlhokwe – Stellies are speedy
“Stellenbosch are a speedy team. It is about trying to deal with the space behind us and to always be first to the ball,” Ditlhokwe told reporters at the Chiefs Village on Tuesday.
“On top of that we have to wait and hear what the coach gives us a strategy, so we can follow it and block them.”
The 26 year-old Botswana international has returned to the Chiefs starting line up in their last three matches. He began the season out of favour at Naturena.
Even while he was not picked by Chiefs head coach Nasreddine Nabi, Dithlokwe continued to play for Botswana. And the Zebras secured qualification for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations finals.
“You could say I am finding my feet in getting back into the (Chiefs) team,” added Ditlhokwe.
“But it is not all about one player. It is about how the team performs. We will see at the end of the day if the team does well. If you focus more on yourself it means you are selfish.”
Ditlhokwe did admit that just one clean sheet in the league so far is not good enough from an Amakhosi perspective.
‘It is like scoring a goal’
“It is not a good thing to concede in every game,” he said.
“As a defender you want to keep a clean sheet, it is like scoring a goal. You are hired to defend, so it is all about watching videos of what goes wrong and trying to rectify it.”
On top of video analysis, Ditlhokwe says the solution to Chiefs’ problems lies on the training pitch. Amakhosi are currently 7th in the table, with just four wins from 11 league matches.
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“The only medicine is to work on the training field and deliver in the game, there is nothing we can do more than that,” he said.
“It is all about focusing on training and when we get to the game, applying what the coach has told us (to do).”
