‘Kaizer Chiefs never lose twice’ – Baxter draws Sir Alex Ferguson inspiration ahead of Soweto Derby

Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter has borrowed a leaf from former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson ahead of the Soweto Derby against rivals Orlando Pirates on Saturday.

Amakhosi will head into the match against their local rivals on the backdrop of losing their last match 1-0 against Stellenbosch FC, and the defeat was their third so far in this campaign.

Meanwhile, the Buccaneers will be buoyed by the fact they won their last match after edging out Sekhukhune United 2-1.

According to the 68-year-old British coach, Ferguson always used to tell his players never to lose twice in a row and it will be the same case for Chiefs when the two sides face off at FNB Stadium.

'Chiefs never lose twice'

“Derbies are most wins all the time, you don’t go into a derby thinking a draw will be okay, after every game Sir Alex Ferguson used to say to Manchester United players, you never lose twice, we [Chiefs] never lose twice, if you lose a game, then the next one you have to win it,” Baxter told the media.

“So in that respect, it is a must-win for our supporters, must-win for our credibility, because we know what is at stake during the derby.”

On his overall thinking of the derby, Baxter said: “I think, first of all, the derby is a derby, what goes before or what comes after in many time is not relevant, what matters is how do you deal with the occasion on the material day, we have the derby so how do we deal with the occasion?

“Can the experienced guys use their experience and help the team? It is all about those things, and what we can do for now is to make sure we do our preparations well and tick all the boxes, and then on the day we make sure that we perform.”

On Chiefs' chances of winning the derby, Baxter said: “It is not all guarantee but we will make sure we tick all our boxes before taking on the pitch to face Pirates. We have looked at a few combinations, we have looked at a few areas where we say is it the right time to make that change?

'It is motivational going into the derby'

"But again, you ask yourself, how many changes can you make, do you want to make changes going into a big game like this, or do you want to wait?

“All those things depend on what you see in training every day, depends on what you see if you give them [players] performance from the bench, for example, the confidence of the players go down to me making a final decision.

“We are thinking about the performance, how are we going to perform and I think we have been happy with some aspects of our past performances and it is not important to look at the log now but it is important to look at the log at the end of the season and is when you can know where teams finished.”

Meanwhile, Bernard Parker is confident Chiefs will bounce back from their last defeat to get a positive result against Pirates.

“For us going into this [derby], is motivational, two days ago things didn’t work out for us maybe because we didn’t give enough to get a good result, but this one coming forward, we have done our review, we have done our preparations and everyone is looking forward to the match,” Parker said.

Last season, it was Pirates who won the first meeting 2-1 before Chiefs recovered to win the second-round meeting 1-0.