Chippa United coach Teboho Moloi says he has tweaked a few things since arriving at the club in September and they remain a work in progress.

Moloi‚ who replaced Daniel “Dance” Malesela three games into the season‚ said he has put more emphasis on the defensive aspect and he is excited by that players are beginning to understand his way of doing things.

“Chippa have been playing beautiful football but they never put effort to defending and now we are getting that right‚” Moloi said at a launch on Friday of a New Year’s Cup for amateur teams to be held in Grahamstown from December 16 to 31‚ sponsored by Mercedes-Benz.

“You must understand that Chippa used to be a ball-retaining team – retention of the ball was the most important thing for them.

"They never applied the aspect of finishing to the product they created and at the same time to defend well when they did not have the ball.”

Since arriving at Chippa‚ Moloi‚ who spent most of his career at Orlando Pirates as a player and assistant-coach‚ is yet to be on the losing side in the league after nine matches following seven draws and two wins.

“When I arrived at the club‚ I told the players that you can’t leave your house unguarded and we had to improve our defensive work because we have the aspect of playing with the ball‚” he said.

“The second part of it was to put away the chances that we create but I am hopeful that we will get it right.

"Our many draws are not because we don’t go into the opposition’s half but they are there because we don’t have timing and don’t pick the spot at crucial times.”

Moloi has guided the Chilli Boys to seventh place on the log where they are three points adrift of log leaders Baroka FC after 12 matches.

“Things will come right with time‚ you can see that all the games that we have drawn we hit the crossbar‚ the upright or the keeper dives the wrong direction and the ball hit his legs‚” he said.

“Even those matches that ended in draws were not dull. I can count four chances from my first game against Platinum Stars where we were supposed to get a smash and grab‚ we go to SuperSport United who scored first but we came from behind.

“Recently‚ against Free State Stars‚ it was the same story‚ against Maritzburg United we hit the upright four times‚ against Bloemfontein Celtic we hit the upright three times and their keeper made good saves.

“We just need to improve our concentration and things will be better going forward.”