Johnson slams AmaZulu players 'not mentally tough enough for PSL'

AmaZulu coach Cavin Johnson has said that his players’ mental attitude is not tough enough for the rigours of the Premier Soccer League‚ and blasted a meek approach after they went down to Polokwane City at home in Umlazi on Wednesday night.

“The fact that we are not mentally strong to do on the field what we do in training says a lot about a lot of our players‚” said a scathing Johnson after his side lost for the first time at home on Wednesday night‚ beaten 3-2 by City.

“Players can do it in training but then they can’t transfer it to the matches. We had the upper hand for most of the game‚ we had them against the wall.

“But we needed to hold the ball a lot better and I felt in the first half a lot of our players were just throwing the ball to the front to try and get an equaliser and get us level 1-1 at half time.

“I told them not to play like we still had plenty time to play‚” added Johnson‚ a big fan of a possession-based approach.

“We held the ball better in the second half and we played around them but we didn’t get as many opportunities as we’d like to.”

Johnson said there was much work to done defensively‚ going into the next match away to Mamelodi Sundowns in Atteridgeville on Saturday night.

“We have to be more composed. We have to take the bull by the horns and tell ourselves‚ ‘This is the PSL‚ it’s not the NFD’.

“We’ve got to stand up and be counted. We need to be a lot more composed and mentally strong in our the defending of the game.”

AmaZulu sit in 11th place in the standings with eight points from seven matches