Chiefs coach gets recipe right

The Italian has been rotating his team, debunking old thinking that says you do not fix it if it is not broken.

Solinas again made six changes to the team who beat Free State Stars last week for last Saturday’s 2-0 win over AmaZulu at the FNB Stadium.

“I am happy with the result and with the way we played. It was not easy. AmaZulu are a good team and they played well against Sundowns. We had a clean sheet and everything is positive. I can’t complain about anyone. Every player gives their best and that makes me optimistic,” he said.

Chiefs now get some time off as they do not have a game this weekend – their next match is on October 2 against Highlands Park at Makhulong Stadium. Many coaches hate these breaks as they feel they kill the team’s rhythm, and Solinas would be justified to feel hard done by as his team have found form and gone on a three-game winning spree.

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“When I have time to prepare the team I am happy,” said Solinas. “It gives you the time, you can work on the details. When there is no time and you play every two to three days you have to focus on the priority.

“In football you need time to improve. You need a lot of training sessions to fix the mistakes and improve. We started with a handicap because we didn’t have a pre-season and we had a lot of games in a short space of time without time for training. But that is not an excuse. This is reality. The instrument for improvement is training,” he added.

Despite an impressive showing where his team have scored eight and conceded one in the past three games, Solinas insists they are not at their best as yet and improvements are needed.

“We needed time for the players to understand each other’s character and the playing philosophy. Now we need to continue improving because three wins is nothing to Chiefs, it is normal. We need to keep our feet on the ground and stay humble and continue to work hard,” he said.

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