Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler says the FIFA break came at a good time for his side after they failed to win any of their first five games of 2024.
The Citizens were in second place on the DStv Premiership standings at the turn of the year but have since slippped behind Orlando Pirates, SuperSport United and Stellenbosch into fifth place.
Tinkler’s side are next in action against seventh-placed Kaizer Chiefs, at Athlone Stadium on Saturday, where a win could lift his team a point above the Buccaneers and back into second spot.
Speaking ahead of the clash, the City boss explained that they have been using their time off from games to “fix certain areas” of their game.
Tinkler said in the Citizen: “The start hasn’t been great to the second half of the season.
“We have had an opportunity to fix certain areas of our game that I think were extremely important. We had a lot of injuries, suspensions and players moving, I don’t think the concentration and focus was there.
“The FIFA break came at a good time. We needed to get players back fit that were key to us prior to the break, there were some new signings that we needed to make more aware of our expectations of them.”
Tinkler added that Chiefs have improved themselves under current interim coach Cavin Johnson.
“They still have issues that we will look to exploit, but their threat up front is massive. And they seem to be utilising it more successfully than they were at the beginning of the season,” he explained.