Moorosi Tsiane
LIOLI may not have lost a league match this season and are table-toppers along with bitter rivals Bantu but their coach, Motebang Makhetha, is worried by the fact that they have been conceding goals ever since he took over the hot seat last month.
Makhetha, a former Liphakoe coach, joined Lioli last month as an assistant to Halemakale Mahlaha but was thrust into the hot seat by the sudden resignation of the latter in the aftermath of Lioli’s failure to retain their Independence Cup crown.
Lioli have played three matches under Makhetha and won them all. Yesterday, they played their fourth match under him against Likhopo.
In those three matches, Lioli have had to come back from behind to win 3-1, 1-2 and 3-1 against Liphakoe, Linare and Sky Battalion respectively.
Prior to yesterday’s game, they had conceded four times in seven matches while Bantu had conceded only once.
Makhetha recently told this publication that they were worried about leaking goals and they were working to rectify the problem.
“I am happy with the overall performance of my charges but no coach wants his team to concede,” Makhetha said, adding, “This is really a course for concern for us all so we have been working very hard trying to avoid that”.
“We have been conceding from very silly mistakes not from tactical failures so we only need to minimise those mistakes.
“The other thing is that we seem to wait for other teams to score first then when we start playing. So I have also being working to ensure that we get into the game from the first whistle. I have been encouraging them to start playing with intensity from the word go.
“The fact that we have managed to come from behind and win our matches shows that we are mentally strong and we just need to keep this up in all our matches,” he said.