Kaizer Chiefs' wasteful strikers face an intense week of work on the practice field after a blunt performance in front of goal on Friday condemned the Soweto giants to their worst start to a league season.
The goalless draw away against 10-man Maritzburg United at a capacity Harry Gwala Stadium marked the fourth Premier Soccer League game without a win for the Chiefs, leaving them with just three points at the start of the new season and plenty of questions about their capacity to challenge for the PSL title this season.
The Chiefs, who have won more South African leagues titles than any other club, have scored just three goals this season and they were particularly poor in front of goal against a side that had a player sent off as early as the 15th minute.
New coach Giovanni Solinas has bemoaned the lack of time to train with his side as the Chiefs have played five games since the opening weekend of the season. But he will now a full week with his players at their Naturena base, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, as they prepare for the first leg of their MTN8 clash against SuperSport United, which they play away in Pretoria on Sunday.
But Solinas is looking ahead to the FIFA international break in September for more time.
"We have to fix out mistakes and that will be a good opportunity," he said at a news conference of the period between September 3-12 when the league takes a break for international matches.
"We've had a lot of games and the break will be a good opportunity for us to improve and work on specific drills for our finishing. We need to exploit this timed in the right manner."
Chiefs' new star signing, Khama Billiat, was particularly poor with his finishing, having had plenty of opportunity on Friday to score his first league goal for his new club since moving from champions Mamelodi Sundowns.
But the Italian-born Solinas did not want to put any blame on his players.
"When you don't win a game like this, it's frustrating but in football such things happen. Everything was perfect, only we needed to put the ball in the back on the net. But I don't want to complain about my players, they did a good job.
"Training sessions will help us to score. The PSL is a marathon and football is not about how you start but how you finish. We have time to fight.
"I know for a big club like Kaizer Chiefs three draws is not good enough but I'm confident for the future," said Solinas, repeating his mantra of several weeks now.
"We are creating chances in every game. We build up well, we arrive near the [opponents'] box easily, now we need to improve our finishing.
"Strikers need to keep calm, sometimes they are rushing too much and it is not necessary. Our strikers need to show more determination but our combinations are good."