Lioli president Lebohang Thotanyana says ‘Tse Nala’ hope to compete for trophies in the 2023/24 campaign following an off-season in which the club prioritised the need to address problems from previous seasons. Speaking to thepost on Tuesday, Thotanyana said Lioli’s main focus over the past three months has been adding depth and experience to the squad.
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He said the Vodacom Premier League is a 30-game marathon in which depth and experience will go a long way for the club if Lioli have any ambitions of competing for titles.
The Teyateyaneng giants go into this season desperate to be contenders again.
‘Tse Nala’ were a league powerhouse but that is now almost a decade ago when Lioli won three titles in four seasons between 2013 and 2016.
Since then, however, Lioli have struggled with no title glory to speak of and, for the past three seasons, not even a top four finish in the league to hang their hat on.
Instead, Lioli have been participants in the last six seasons and changing fortunes in Teyateyaneng will not only be determined by what happens in the transfer window. Thotanyana has admitted that off-field issues affected the team’s performance in the past, but speaking ahead of the new campaign, he insisted this time around they will be holding one-on-one meetings with the players to outline the club’s expectations.
“I think we did a lot with very little, we are happy. We have one player that we were not able to sign who unfortunately the system rejected because it was last minute,” Thotanyana said of Lioli’s transfer business.
“We have tried to address the challenges that were within the team by getting the much needed depth and experience, because the plan is to not play for the league, we want to compete for the league and we are hopeful that the signings we made will help us get different results,” he said.
“One of the things we are going to do from tomorrow is to hold one-on-one sessions with all the players and all the members of the technical team as the management. We are going to try to let them know our expectations and our strategy for this year. We are very much aware that Lioli was not bad as a team, but I think off the field we were not so good and that was affecting our job,” he said.
Thotanyana said not being able to compete for trophies has been the club management’s foremost concern because the club’s culture had become one of winning after a glorious spell of four titles between 2009 and 2016.
Failure to win breaks tradition, it creates chaos, confusion and a lot of pressure.
Thotanyana said it is one of the things they are trying to address.
Lioli participated in the Alliance Winter Challenge earlier this month and after playing two games they were only able to score one goal, another area Thotanyana said they are looking at.
“We are already in discussions with the coaches to address some of the problems we have, the truth is if you look at our team, almost 60 percent of it is new and, because of that, gelling and finding each other is a problem,” Thotanyana said.
“If you look at the team we played against in the first game, Matlama, they have been together for a long time and LCS (Lesotho Correctional Service) similarly have played together for a long time, so they know each other and their weaknesses, and how they cover for each other,” he said.
“We are asking our supporters to give us a chance to see what we do with the team, we are not asking for a chance to lose, no. I am glad that until now they are still cool and calm,” Thotanyana said.
Tlalane Phahla
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