Booysen leaps to defence of Chiefs' defenders

by Staff Reporter

Friday Nov 02, 2018. 13:00

Kaizer Chiefs centre-back Mario Booysen has come to the defence of the club's defenders in build-up to their Telkom Knockout quarterfinal clash against SuperSport United this weekend.

The Amakhosi backline were left heavily exposed in the club's 2-1 loss to Soweto rivals Orlando Pirates last weekend, with Booysen at fault for Vincent Pule's winning goal.

Booysen, who joined the Glamour Boys from relegated Ajax Cape Town in August, started at the heart of defence alongside Siyabonga Ngezana with Giovanni Solinas yet to settle on a back four combination.

“I think, with the amount of quality in our backline, anyone can play at the end of the day because myself, ‘Danny’ [Daniel Cardoso], [Erick] Mathoho, Teenage [Hadebe] and Siya [Ngezana] can all step up, and it’s up to the coach who plays,” Booysen told the media on Wednesday.

“I think you can’t question that quality. Yes, we’ve taken a lot of criticism but that mustn’t hit our confidence because I believe you can’t become a bad player overnight.

“We have to focus on the positives and, you know, we do self-introspection and we know what we have to grow on. And, like I said, you can’t question the amount of quality the defenders in the team have, so we just have to keep growing," he concluded.

Chiefs will be aiming to end their cup curse against Matsatsantsa this weekend, with SuperSport having knocked Chiefs out of both the Nedbank Cup and MTN8 in recent memory.