Citizens now stronger than 2016 team – Tinkler
Coach's second City spell boosted by new players
Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler is of the view his current squad is stronger than that of 2016.
Tinkler rejoined City towards the end of last season. During his maiden spell at the Mother City club between July 2016 and June 2017, Tinkler propelled the Citizens to Telkom Knockout glory in what was their first year in the Premiership, post buying Mpumalanga Black Aces’ status.
Speaking in yesterday’s virtual media conference to build up to their MTN8 quarterfinal clash against AmaZulu at Moses Mabhida Stadium tomorrow, Tinkler relayed why he believes the present team is better than that of 2016.
“All the players that we’ve brought in have just strengthened us. If I compare this team to the team that we had back in 2016, I think this one is far stronger than the team of 2016,’’ Tinkler said.
Lebogang Manyama, Aubrey Ngoma, Vincent Kobola and current skipper Thami Mkhize were some of the eager-beavers of the 2016 crop that finished fourth on the log. That fourth finish remains City’s highest league finish to date.
“In 2016 we were building a team from scratch. When we started the season, we started with 10 players, so really had to build the team up and we had to bring in a number of experienced players to make sure that we were competitive,’’ the City coach said.
“This time around, that wasn’t the case because there was already an experienced and competitive team that has performed fairly well in the league in the past three seasons.”
Tinkler’s wasn’t too keen to give his analysis on Usuthu heading into the Wafa-Wafa clash, preferring to focus on what his team can do tomorrow.
“I am not really concerned about AmaZulu… I am more concerned about us. First and foremost, we must look at ourselves, assessing where our strengths and weaknesses are. That’s what we primarily focus on,’’ Tinkler said.