Stuart Baxter has turned his attention to the Bafana Bafana job as his juggling act between the national coaching job and SuperSport United has started.
Baxter will not be travelling with the SuperSport side today to Gabon where they play CF Mounana in Libreville tomorrow in their second group match in the Confederation Cup.
However, he will be on the SuperSport bench for the last game of the season against Platinum Stars on Saturday and again in next month’s Nedbank Cup final.
But for now, the Briton will be 100% focused on getting the best possible national team to play against Nigeria on June 10 in their Afcon qualifier.
On Thursday he will name the team that will play against the Super Eagles.
Speaking to journalists after SuperSport’s 4-2 win on penalties over Chippa United at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane to advance to the Nedbank Cup final, the Briton said: “I’ve done some work on the squad. I’ve done some work on the opponents. I’m reading a lot of Nigerian newspapers every day, I’m trying to find out what they are thinking.
“And I’m going to try and pick a team with a few warriors that will take us to Nigeria and get us a result.”
Baxter is hoping to hit the ground running in his second stint with the national team as he said he had already already asked the SA Football Association (Safa) to write to teams, both locally and overseas, to release players earlier if they are finished for the season.
But Baxter admitted that because of his SuperSport job, he did not have time to watch Nigeria play.
“I’ve had to say right the next two days I’ll take my SuperSport hat and put on my Bafana hat. It’s obviously not perfect. The preparations aren’t going to be perfect but I’ll get a DVD of that – I’ll break that down – I’ll look at their last three games, I’ll break that down.
“We played them the 2-2 game, I saw that, I’ll get that and I’ll break that down. So, we’ll do some preparation on them and I think the important thing is to get the squad right,” he said.
Baxter indicated that he might not fiddle too much with the team that was recently selected by then caretaker coach Owen da Gama but stressed the need to take experienced campaigners to Nigeria.
“Get the right sort of squad to take. I mean look we want to keep an element of development in there all the time and I don’t want to regress. You are, however, big enough to look at the players that have come in and say ‘is this one you should throw in the deep end in Nigeria, or should he be on the bench, should he just be in the squad. But I think the people you’re going to have to play are the ones that have done it,” Baxter said.
“I don’t mean you certainly start bringing back Morgan Gould although he was fantastic tonight but you know what I mean. The ones, players like Dean with the experience that he’s got. Itu will be important in these sort of games.”
He hopes to have a practice match either against a South African club or any of the Southern African neighbours before the Nigeria game.
Reacting to SuperSport’s win over Chippa, Baxter, who made eight changes to the team that was beaten 3-0 by the Chilli Boys in an Absa Premiership game in Port Elizabeth last week, said he was happy that he had rotated his players as the game went to extra time.
“I’ll be coming back for the final. Don’t ask me how are we going to do it. I’m going to be a boomerang coach that keeps coming back,” he jokingly said.
“I’m just glad for them . Someone said to me before the game ‘that would be a great way to send you off’.
“That’s irrelevant. The important thing is that if the players work as hard as this year, they deserve this final and I’ll do everything to help them go and win the trophy,” he said.
Baxter plots Bafana win
Baxter will not be travelling with the SuperSport side today to Gabon where they play CF Mounana in Libreville tomorrow in their second group match in the Confederation Cup.
However, he will be on the SuperSport bench for the last game of the season against Platinum Stars on Saturday and again in next month’s Nedbank Cup final.
But for now, the Briton will be 100% focused on getting the best possible national team to play against Nigeria on June 10 in their Afcon qualifier.
On Thursday he will name the team that will play against the Super Eagles.
Speaking to journalists after SuperSport’s 4-2 win on penalties over Chippa United at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane to advance to the Nedbank Cup final, the Briton said: “I’ve done some work on the squad. I’ve done some work on the opponents. I’m reading a lot of Nigerian newspapers every day, I’m trying to find out what they are thinking.
“And I’m going to try and pick a team with a few warriors that will take us to Nigeria and get us a result.”
Baxter is hoping to hit the ground running in his second stint with the national team as he said he had already already asked the SA Football Association (Safa) to write to teams, both locally and overseas, to release players earlier if they are finished for the season.
But Baxter admitted that because of his SuperSport job, he did not have time to watch Nigeria play.
“I’ve had to say right the next two days I’ll take my SuperSport hat and put on my Bafana hat. It’s obviously not perfect. The preparations aren’t going to be perfect but I’ll get a DVD of that – I’ll break that down – I’ll look at their last three games, I’ll break that down.
“We played them the 2-2 game, I saw that, I’ll get that and I’ll break that down. So, we’ll do some preparation on them and I think the important thing is to get the squad right,” he said.
Baxter indicated that he might not fiddle too much with the team that was recently selected by then caretaker coach Owen da Gama but stressed the need to take experienced campaigners to Nigeria.
“Get the right sort of squad to take. I mean look we want to keep an element of development in there all the time and I don’t want to regress. You are, however, big enough to look at the players that have come in and say ‘is this one you should throw in the deep end in Nigeria, or should he be on the bench, should he just be in the squad. But I think the people you’re going to have to play are the ones that have done it,” Baxter said.
“I don’t mean you certainly start bringing back Morgan Gould although he was fantastic tonight but you know what I mean. The ones, players like Dean with the experience that he’s got. Itu will be important in these sort of games.”
He hopes to have a practice match either against a South African club or any of the Southern African neighbours before the Nigeria game.
Reacting to SuperSport’s win over Chippa, Baxter, who made eight changes to the team that was beaten 3-0 by the Chilli Boys in an Absa Premiership game in Port Elizabeth last week, said he was happy that he had rotated his players as the game went to extra time.
“I’ll be coming back for the final. Don’t ask me how are we going to do it. I’m going to be a boomerang coach that keeps coming back,” he jokingly said.
“I’m just glad for them . Someone said to me before the game ‘that would be a great way to send you off’.
“That’s irrelevant. The important thing is that if the players work as hard as this year, they deserve this final and I’ll do everything to help them go and win the trophy,” he said.
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