Johnson on how far off Chiefs are from playing his preferred style

Kaizer Chiefs interim coach Calvin Johnson has made an honest admission on how far off his side is from playing his preferred style.

When Johnson was appointed in October 2023, replacing Molefi Ntseki at the helm, he said he wanted the team to play the ‘Kaizer Chiefs’ way.

However, the PSL giants have been inconsistent in their performances. The team is blowing hot and cold as their current playing style [possession-based and playing on transition] doesn’t help them to grind the positive results.

Under Johnson’s guidance, Amakhosi have played eight matches in all competitions. He has registered four victories and two draws and suffered two defeats.

CALVIN JOHNSON SAYS CHIEFS ARE FAR FROM PLAYING HIS PREFERRED STYLE

Without hiding the truth, Johnson admitted that his side is far from playing his preferred style but sees some positives and improvements.

“If I answer it correctly, you could see last year when we played [our last] five games. We won four and we drew the last one, we were getting there slowly,” said Johnson.

“But because of the [2023 AFCON] break, the momentum goes down, and we played against Royal AM. We had four or five one-on-ones with the goalkeeper, and we didn’t pull it together. It looks like we play a bad game, in my mind as a coach I say after the game, ‘we didn’t play well’. We were not comfortable on the ball.

“I think we still have a long way to go; we will get there, for sure. With the players that we have, we’ll play some bad games. But I think we’ll play better games going forward. We’re getting there but slowly, it takes time, but the games are coming thick and fast now after this Nedbank Cup.

“Again we are just able to stitch quicker, sometimes when the machine is working all the time, it gets better. Hopefully, we get where we want to be as far as stitching the cloth that we spoke about when I took over.”

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