Stuart Baxter has shown his quality by becoming the first foreign coach to win the ABSA Premier League in his maiden season.
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One of the marks of a good coach is his ability to juggle participating in numerous competitions at the same time and manage to produce results while keeping the entire squad happy.
Stuart Baxter has shown his quality by becoming the first foreign coach to win the championship in his maiden season in the country’s elite league in 2013.
His failure to defend the title the following season, despite enjoying a good lead, somehow served to undermine that effort – leaving some to doubt his credentials.
Contributing to that failure was Kaizer Chiefs’ participation in the Caf Champions League midway through the season that also had the Nedbank Cup on the go.
The situation repeats itself again, starting this week, and it will be interesting to see how Baxter fares this time around.
Just like last year, Baxter’s Amakhosi are top of the table going into the new year and have already been declared by many as champions-elect.
But the former Bafana Bafana coach knows better than to count his chickens before they’ve hatched and refuses to see his side’s massive lead as unassailable. “On paper it certainly looks like a big lead,” he said on Monday “But I am taking nothing for granted and I know that if we don’t perform we will be under pressure.”
Chiefs will thus have to perform their utmost best against a tricky Bloemfontein Celtic side that welcomes them to the Free State Stadium still smarting from the defeat they suffered to Orlando Pirates on the last day of the year before the Africa Cup of Nations induced break. Positioned a mere three points away from the play-off spot, Celtic will want to pick up points in their backyard to extricate themselves from the danger zone and will not be lacking in motivation. Add to that the lure of becoming the first side to inflict defeat on Baxter’s team in the league this season and you can bet Clinton Larsen has arguably the easiest team talk to make tonight.
Not so for Baxter, who will be hard-pressed to get some of his players – Brilliant Khuzwayo, Reneilwe Letsholonyane and Mandla Masango – focused on the domestic front following their Afcon participation.
He will also have to ensure that his team is not distracted by the idea of saving themselves for the Caf Champions League preliminary tie against Township Rollers of Botswana coming up at the weekend.
One thing Baxter has succeeded in doing is getting Chiefs to not allow their incredible league run to get to their heads – Amakhosi having tackled each and every one of their league clashes with high intensity and determination, irrespective of the opponents.
In Celtic though, they will be well aware of the potential danger posed by the team that often lifts their game to incredibly high levels whenever Amakhosi come to visit.
But as Baxter said, his teams have generally gotten the better of Celtic – they beat them 1-0 in the first round already – and the key will be for them to stay focused on the job and not be distracted by the looming challenges of continental and local cup competitions ahead.
In other matches tonight, Pirates are away to bottom-dwellers AmaZulu, Platinum Stars host Black Aces, while Polokwane City travel to Cape Town for a clash with Ajax while SuperSport United welcome Free State Stars. - The Star
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