Counter attack for Chippa in Cup semifinal

Chippa United are likely to continue playing a counter attacking game when they face Kaizer Chiefs in Saturday’s Nedbank Cup semifinal, even though it did not work in their last outing against Bidvest Wits last weekend.

Coach Clinton Larsen is backing his attackers to take on the AmaKhosi defence as Chippa look to book their first ever cup final place and he will stick with the tactic for the next two vital league games too – away at champions Mamelodi Sundowns on Tuesday, April 23 and Cape Town City at home three days later.

“I keep saying that a lot of the big teams in this league have very experienced defenders but their Achilles heel is that they lack pace and we are a dangerous team on the break and we’ve got a bit of speed on the break and we’ve got to take advantage of that,” insisted Larsen.

Against the likes of Sundowns and Cape Town City and Kaizer Chiefs, we have to make sure we are on point in terms of breaking at the right moments, creating four versus three, five versus four situations in our favour because that numerical advantage in offensive positions is what gives you the edge on teams and that is something we have been working very hard on; trying to make sure that at the right moment, when the opponent is disorganised, that we hit them with speed and with numbers.

Chippa also need to work harder on keeping possession having turned over a high number of balls in Friday’s 0-1 loss to Wits in the league.

“For the first time, we’ve turned over so much possession so cheaply and as a result it limits your consistency of attacks because with each turnover that’s one less opportunity to get to the opponent’s box and that’s a worrying thing we need to fix.”

“But it’s the first time it has happened and we’ve got enough quality to rectify these things and come out stronger,” Larsen said.

Chippa sit in 13th place in the standings but are only above the bottom two places in the table on goal difference and have played one match more than Baroka and Free State Stars, who are immediately beneath them.