Luc Eymael Demands Chippa Players To “Wake Up”
Newly appointed Chippa United coach Luc Eymael has warned his team that they must “wake up” to avoid further disaster this season.
Eymael, who was recently hired to turn around the club’s dreadful start, oversaw his first match on Sunday, a 3-0 loss to Orlando Pirates. The defeat leaves the Eastern Cape club at the bottom of the table with zero points after five matches.
Eymael is the fourth coach to take charge of Chippa this season. Sinethemba Badela coached the first two matches, earning a draw against Mamelodi Sundowns and a loss to Durban City before being sacked.
Musa Nyatama then served as caretaker coach in a 4-1 thrashing by TS Galaxy, followed by Morgan Mammila, who was in charge for the loss to Richards Bay last week. Eymael was in the stands for that match, waiting for his work permit to be issued.
“We have to now work hard during this international break to improve the players because it is really time to wake up,” Eymael told Sportswire.
“If not, we will not come out of the hole, and my target is to remain in this position [in charge of the club]. I have never been in this position before [at the bottom of the table], but now we really need to wake up. You always have to learn from mistakes to be better and perhaps achieve something in the future.”
Eymael is no stranger to the league, having previously coached Polokwane City and Free State Stars, whom he led to a Nedbank Cup title in the 2017/18 season.
During the loss to Pirates at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Chippa’s defense was plagued by errors. Goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali was at fault for the first goal, as his pass to the midfield was intercepted, leading to a Pirate’s goal. The second goal also came from a mistake, as the ball was lost in midfield.
Eymael blamed the previous coaches for the team’s tendency to build from the back. “It is not me who taught him [Nwabali] that; that habit has been taught by the people before me,” he said.
“I saw that during the week, and I said we build up from the back, and then we go direct to the fullbacks, and if it’s not possible, we launch the ball to the wingers. I see he [Nwabali] was falling into the habit of other people who were teaching him before, the most dangerous pass—a central pass to a number six.”
“I told him; I explained to him. We need a special exercise to avoid these mistakes, and unfortunately, the mistakes appeared against Pirates. You see the second goal, we conceded at the near post; we can’t concede like that. But okay, I’m not here to blame anyone.
“I want to just correct things because I want to take this team out of the hole, but everyone has to wake up. I have been saying that to the chairman [Siviwe Mpengesi], but it is not easy to correct things when you didn’t have a pre-season, and we don’t have a lot of time to correct things. It is easy to pick up a bad habit, but it takes time to get rid of a bad habit—it’s very difficult.”
