Baxter questions Kaizer Chiefs players' commitment after Stellenbosch FC defeat twitter facebook reddit twitter facebook reddit

Kaizer Chiefs head coach Stuart Baxter questioned the commitment of his players following their defeat to Stellenbosch FC on Tuesday afternoon.

The Soweto giants suffered their first-ever defeat to Stellies when they succumbed to a narrow 1-0 loss in a PSL encounter that was played at FNB Stadium.

Baxter explained that his charges couldn't break down Stellies' rock-solid defence with Stellenbosch head coach Steve Barker having organised his side very well.

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"I think the first 15 minutes was okay, it was the high tempo that we wanted, we pinned them back and with their first attack," Baxter told the media.

"They broke free and passed our press, got a runner in, even though not too dangerous but it was a bit of a warning shot. I don't know if that made us more defensive but we became quite static.

"They controlled the game quite well, Steve had them well organised and they played with a low block. They controlled the game quite comfortably."

Ashley Du Preez's 38th-minute strike earned unbeaten Stellenbosch the victory and Baxter feels that the goal placed his charges on the back foot.

"The goal came in the middle of that and that put us on the back foot. We had to chase the game and we tweaked tactically a couple of things at half-time, put more bodies up the field," he continued.

"But I thought our decision-making when we were in good situations was not good enough. Even though we moved the ball quite quickly in the second half, we weren't as committed in the patterns of movement that we've been doing."

"We weren't as committed as I'd like to see us. We didn't have the quality to break down a solid block. You've got to have plenty of movement, you've got to have awareness if you want to break down that sort of solid defence."

The British tactician also felt that Amakhosi lacked the cutting edge as the team's four-match unbeaten run came to an end ahead of their Soweto Derby clash with Orlando Pirates on Saturday.

"It was not a bad performance but it was a performance without the edge that we want to see and that edge was the fact that we didn't make those decisions and we didn't read things early enough," he added.

"Not the result we wanted, absolutely not."