Mngqithi ready ‘to dig very deep’ ahead of Chiefs outing – ‘Not me to motivate players’

Kaizer Chiefs are set for another exciting weekend when they play Golden Arrows in the Premier Soccer League game staged at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday.

The Glamour Boys are joint top on the PSL table with 10 points, alongside Sekhukhune United, having collected three wins and a draw, while Abafana Bes'thende have two wins, a draw, and a loss in the four South African top-tier outings as well.

From the way they have been playing, it is obvious Amakhosi will come into the fixture as favourites. However, coach Manqoba Mngqithi insists it will not be a walk in the park for coach Nasreddine Nabi's men. The former Mamelodi Sundowns coach is adamant his players need no motivation ahead of the match.

The tactician has further underlined the importance of beating the so-called small teams to stand a chance of achieving their objectives.

‘Players must know how important it is to beat Chiefs'

“For me, every win is important. I always say to people, if you want to be successful in a championship, you must focus more on winning games like Magesi, because those are the games that require a little bit more because the level of intrinsic motivation is not very high,” Mngqithi started by reacting to the 2-1 win over Dikwena Tsa Meetse in the recent outing.

“Even if you don’t win against Chiefs, Orlando Pirates, and Mamelodi Sundowns, but if you do very well against the so-called smaller opposition, that’s where the championship is. I’ve always said the success of Sundowns in the championship has always been hinging around them beating all these smaller teams, because we’ve [when he was still at Sundowns] hardly had seasons where we would win all the big matches, but when we win smaller matches, it’s important] because they are more than the so-called big matches.

“Going into Chiefs’ game, I don’t think it’s up to me to motivate them [Arrows players], unlike the game of Magesi. Against Magesi, I have to dig very deep just to make them understand how important it is to get the three points,” he continued.

“But against Chiefs, the level of intrinsic motivation is very high. You must just try to control the anxiety, because when the motivation is that high, there is a very big chance of anxiety, which is an enemy of good technical execution. When you are anxious, you can’t execute technically the way you want to.

“So, yes, winning against Magesi is a motivation, but I think even if you had lost three matches before playing Chiefs, when you play them, the level of motivation is naturally very high,” Mngqithi concluded.