Kaizer Chiefs were made to pay for complacency – Middendorp

Kaizer Chiefs head coach Ernst Middendorp admitted his side were complacent against Bloemfontein Celtic following their 3-1 loss on Wednesday night at the University of Pretoria stadium.

Kaizer Chiefs were coming off a morale boosting victory against Polokwane City over the weekend in which they came from two goals down to win 3-2 and Middendorp believes the high of Saturday negatively affected his side’s performance on the night.

Kaizer Chiefs squandered the chance of going nine points clear of Mamelodi Sundowns at the top of the PSL log standings leaving the title race wide open ahead of their remaining five fixtures.

Kaizer Chiefs took it too ‘easy’ – Middendorp

The Amakhosi mentor believes his side were made to pay for taking Bloemfontein Celtic lightly despite leading the game for majority of the first half.

“It’s always something when you take it too easy. and I think we had this problem today. We were thinking with this setup, how we turned around Polokwane City and we wanted to take this drive in to this game today. But unfortunately it didn’t work.” Kaizer Chiefs head coach Ernst Middendorp told SuperSport TV.

“We were the ones who were leading but again it’s all about the energy, how we approach this game through the entire game. We haven’t done it right. Bloemfontein Celtic are a difficult side to play against.

“We should be disappointed. We haven’t really approached it like we wanted to win. We have to talk among ourselves in the next few days to be better prepared on Saturday.”

I tried to freshen things up – Middendorp

Kaizer Chiefs head coach Ernst Middendorp made a number of changes during the second-half and the German tactician has since explained the thought process behind them.

“Manyama already has a certain challenge in terms of hamstring. It was a risk already to bring him in today and I could see he was not free to move.” – Middendorp added.

“On the right side, we had some issues. We had some problems. I wanted to block it with a bit more solidity. But unfortunately, more or less in the first minute of the second half we conceded again.”

Kaizer Chiefs now turn their attention to Clive Barker’s tricky Stellenbosch FC who they face on Sunday afternoon at the Orlando Stadium.