Cape Town City head coach Eric Tinkler admits there’s much more to come from Khanyisa Mayo and Thabiso Kutumela this season.
Mayo scored in successive games for the first time after a dire start to the 2023/24 campaign as they beat Cape Town Spurs in the iKapa Derby on Saturday and Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium on Tuesday evening.
“I think his work ethic has improved immensely, he’s not reactive, which was his problem in the first couple of games, he was very reactive to what was happening around him, but now he is more active, sharp, aware of where he should be going,” Tinkler said.
“He’s aware of the spaces he should be looking to occupy, he’s gambling a bit more so I think that’s the important thing, his work ethic is back to what it was before.”
Meanwhile, Kutumela joined the club from Mamelodi Sundowns on loan and has yet to find the net in his opening seven games, but produced a livewire display against Chiefs that offered the Citizens a new dimension in attack.
The 30-year-old previously starred under Tinkler’s guidance during their time together at Maritzburg United.
“Kutu got thrown in a bit of the deep end, in all honesty, coming to us, having spoken to him… 30 minutes in pre-season is the only game time he had for the whole of pre-season,” Tinkler said about the Sundowns loanee.
“So to get him to the level I know he needs to be at, in terms of fitness, that would take a little bit of time. We had the two-week break and we pushed him extremely hard, played a friendly against Stellenbosch, and a league match against AmaZulu, but he wasn’t great.
“Against TS Galaxy he struggled, that was fatigue, it’s almost like he was having another pre-season with the fatigue in his legs but now you’re starting to see the Kutumela of old coming out and the fitter he gets, the better it gets – still a lot to see from him.”
City are now in fifth place in the league, 11 points behind league leaders and reigning champions Masandawana.
