Khune has struggled for game time in the past three top-flight seasons. He was injured for spells, but he’s also opened up about the fact that he gained weight.
Khune was overlooked with Daniel Akpeyi, Bruce Bvuma and Brandon Peterson all preferred in the Chiefs side.
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Yes, those games have always been difficult for us – they were more like our hoodoo team – and we are expecting a tough one on Saturday. They have been doing very well, managing to grind out results away from home, and also at home, so it shows they have assembled a good team that plays with energy. They also have a good technical team. But overall, as a club we are looking forward to the game.
Take us through your preparations since you last played?
When you look at how we are trying to play, I don’t think we need to dwell too much on the negatives. I have seen a lot of positives and we are trying to improve those positives and bring back the confidence in the team. The players have responded positively. When I look at them even now, there’s a lot of positivity in their mindset, which is very good for us. Hopefully, we will take this into the game itself and continue with the same energy and positive mindset.
Obviously, there are challenges here and there, with injuries and suspensions as time goes on, but those things happen. They are part of the game as well.
As coaches you look at different elements that we, as supporters, don’t see. At this stage, how do you define the status of your team? Where are you in terms of the philosophy and the things you want to do?
In terms of combinations, we are getting closer because if you watch our games we always have a few promising good moments that we usually don’t capitalise on, but which I believe will build our confidence even more if we can capitalise when we create those chances. We are working on that. We are also trying to make sure that the players forget about the mistakes on the field and focus more on the good things that they do. The more we improve the more we believe in ourselves and our abilities. I think we will get it right sooner rather than later.
What intelligence have you gathered from Pretoria, based on what you have seen in their previous games, their players pound for pound… how do you assess them?
I think their main strength is their aerial power. They get the ball out wide and put in crosses. They’ve got players like Bradley (Grobler), (Thamsanqa) Gabuza and (Thabang) Sibanyoni. They also have players that are out and out wingers that can put in good crosses so we are trying by all means to cut the supply. That will be the strategy; not to allow them to get the ball out wide and pinpoint the players inside the box.
At the same time, we also have to give them something to worry about when we have the ball. We have areas where we know that if we can quickly get the ball to those areas we can easily create a lot of goalscoring
