It will be important for Cape Town City to make a winning start to the new DStv Premiership season, when they begin the new campaign on Sunday at home against newly promoted Polokwane City, coach Eric Tinkler said on Tuesday.
Cape Town City finished fourth last season but only after coming back from a poor start to the season and Tinkler told a press conference he wants to avoid a similar scenario this new campaign.
“It was a problem in the last two seasons that we didn't start really that strong. Last season, we had a number of injuries, especially in our backline. We're making the players aware of the fact that it's very, very important for us to start on the front foot, especially with this first game at home against Polokwane City,” he said
Tinkler has set tough objectives for the club this season as they look for silverware. They have previously won two cups -- the Telkom Knockout in 2016 and the MTN8 two years after that.
“For us, it's now about looking to build on what we achieved at the end of last season. First and foremost, defensively, look to keep a few more clean sheets than what we did last season. Then obviously, going forward, we looked at the chances that we created last season. And then the amount of goals that we ended up scoring. And for us, it wasn't enough.
“We believe if we want to achieve what we want to achieve this season, we have to improve in those areas.”
But with a consistent squad, Tinkler feels he might get the best of his players.
“The good thing is that we've kept majority of the squad and now it's just getting 5%, 6% better than what we were last season. I'm an ambitious coach, I always come into every season believing that I can win something.”
However, new boys Polokwane City will be something of a closed book in Sunday’s clash at the Athlone Stadium (live on SuperSport 5:30pm)
“That's going to be difficult to be honest. But what I know about Polokwane is they're a team that wants to play football as well, very similar to us. They are hardworking, aggressive, team. They're going to know more about us because we haven't changed much in terms of our personnel. We're not looking to change the way we play. So we've been focusing primarily on ourselves, looking to better ourselves,” Tinkler added.
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