Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter has decided to praise his counterpart for a plan well executed after his side suffered a third defeat of the season at the hands of Stellenbosch at home on Tuesday.
“I think the first 15 minutes was ok, it was the high tempo we wanted and we pinned them back. But in their first attack I think they got free and broke our press, got a runner in, even though not too dangerous it was a bit of a warning shot,” the Englishman in his reaction of their 1-0 DStv Premiership defeat to Stellies on Tuesday.
Amakhosi were started brightly but could not sustain it, until their visitors asked questions of them, they could not answer on the day.
“I don’t know if that made us a bit apprehensive,” Baxter said of the aggressive nature in which Stellenbosch attacked in the first half.
“But we became a little static and they took over the game, controlled the game quite well. They played a low block, I thought Steve had them quite well organized and were comfortable and the goal came during that.”
The exquisite strike from Ashley du Preez before half-time was the winner in the end, leaving Baxter to question the approach from his men.
“I thought out decision making when we were in good situations was not good enough. Even though we played more quickly in our combination play in the second half, we weren’t as committed to the movements we’ve been doing. We didn’t have the quality to break down what was a solid block. You’ve got to have plenty of movement and plenty of awareness if you are going to break down that sort of compact defence. I don’t think it was a bad performance, but it was a performance without the edge. We didn’t read things early enough,” he explained.