HIGHLANDS Park coach Owen Da Gama is starting to sound like a broken record!
The embattled coach has made the same excuses over and over again to justify why his team keeps conceding goals at an alarming rate and losing matches by big margins. It didn’t come as a surprise when he blamed his defence for another heavy defeat following a 3-1 loss to Orlando Pirates in their Absa Premiership match at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday.
When his team suffered a 3-0 defeat to Kaizer Chiefs, he said not being able to field the same defensive pairing, contributed to the big loss. Three days after the Chiefs hammering, Highlands were thrashed 4-1 by rookies Stellenbosch and Da Gama made the same excuses.
Da Gama has again given the same reasons as to why his team is falling apart. A visibly disappointed Da Gama said: “We have not had the same defence in the last six matches. Ryan Ray is out, Given Msimango is out, Sphiwe Mahlangu is out and Ricardo Williams is also out and has undergone an operation. Against Chiefs it was a new defensive pair and against Bucs we had to bring in Bevan Fransman. This defence keeps on changing and in reality any defence needs at least three games to settle in and get to know each other. We’ve just been unfortunate with injuries.”
Highlands have two weeks to regroup before they host Baroka at Makhulong Stadium in Tembisa on 1 February. Da Gama said they will bring in psychologists to help restore the players’ confidence. He will also use the time to work on his leaky defence.
Added Da Gama: “We will do team building, bring in motivational speakers and chat with the players to work on a few things. I think that is the way forward.”