City reserves coach bemoans SA players' shaky grasp of basic skills

Cape Town City reserves coach Ian Taylor says the problem with SA players is that they tend to want to do the extraordinary instead of excelling with the basic principles of football.

Taylor's side has been steady in the DStv Diski Challenge this season, kicking it off with back-to-back wins against defending champions Stellenbosch and Kaizer Chiefs. The trainer applauded his players for getting the six points and credite them for executing what they had been working on during the preseason. 

"Credit to the players for the hard work they have [put] out in the preseason," said Taylor.

"They have worked very hard on certain aspects. As a team we worked very hard on defending, we conceded a lot of goals last season. So more working on what we doing without the ball, that’s been the big focus. Individually they have got it right and also collectively. They understand what it means to play as a team," he said. 

The reserve league is meant to polish up players to be ready for the professional ranks. However, coaches are having to coach basics that were supposed to have been learnt during the formative stages of the players. Even some of the players who are playing in the professional ranks struggle with certain basics. 

Taylor shared his views on how the lack of grasping football basics has set back the footballing standard of SA football. 

"Maintaining the standard is always a challenge for SA players, they want to do the extraordinary instead of doing the simple thing consistently. That’s the biggest challenge for our players," said Taylor. 

"We coach 18,19, and 20-year-olds things that should have been taught when they were 12, 13 or 14 years old. This is the problem with football in the country, our players don’t get the foundations of proper development, and we are giving it late.

“With coaches sometimes at this level of development, it gets neglected because they don’t want to do those simple things, everything is about tactics and formation and all these types of things. As a coach, you want to coach these things and forget about the principles of the game," he said.

Taylor's City Colts will be back in action on Saturday when they take on Orlando Pirates at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium at 12pm. 

Reserve league fixtures: 

Tomorrow: Golden Arrows v Marumo Gallants (Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium, 10 am); Royal AM v AmaZulu (Mpumalanga Stadium, KZN 10 am); TS Galaxy v Mamelodi Sundowns (Lucas Moripe Stadium, 10 am); Orlando Pirates v Cape Town City, Lucas Moripe, 12 pm); Stellenbosch v Richards Bay (Idas Valley Sports Ground, 12pm).

Sunday: Swallows v SuperSport United (Lucas Moripe, 10am); Sekhukhune United v Maritzburg United (Tsakane Stadium, 10am); Kaizer Chiefs v Chippa United (Lucas Moripe, 12pm).