Judging from the result and the body language from the players, it is evident that the new sheriff in town Nasreddine Nabi, and his technical team still have a lot of work to do and a mammoth task on their hands.
Despite it being a pre-season friendly match, Kaizer Chiefs were handed an embarrassing 4-0 walloping by Young Africans of Tanzania in the inaugural Toyota Cup in front of a sold-out and boisterous Free State Stadium crowd in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
Thanks to goals from striker Prince Dube, Clement Mzize, and a brace from Aziz Ki, as Yanga came out top.
On what was a sunny, yet chilly day with the winter season still very much alive, the football-hungry Siwelele supporters came out in their numbers to enjoy a spectacle of football ahead of the new Betway Premiership season, as Marumo Gallants is set to bring their home games to them.
Since his appointment early this month as the new Chiefs gaffer, the Amakhosi faithful got to witness a glimpse of ‘Nabi ball’ and what they are likely to experience for the entire season.
His starting lineup comprised four development players Mfundo Vilakazi, Samkelo Zwane, Mduduzi Shabalala including the son of legendary Patrick Mbuthu Nkosana.
It goes without saying that the performance of Chiefs left coach Nabi with a lot of questions and more reason to pester the club, specifically the sporting director to sign him quality and experienced players.
For instance, it was unfair for Chiefs’ attack to be led by young development players, while on the other end, three of Chiefs’ goals that were conceded were due to defensive errors with the other one coming from a transition
This shows that Nabi will need not only good but also quality players to flourish and bring back the glory days at Amakhosi.
Some of the bad habits of the Chiefs players for visible, such as negative reactions after losing the ball, lapse of concentration in crucial stages of the match, lack of sense of urgency, and levels of energy dropping when needed the most, amongst other things.
However, despite the embarrassing hammering in front of their home supporters, for some reason, Nabi found some positives from his team’s performance.
“It was a friendly game, but this game helped me and my technical team so much to know the level of my players, collectively and individually,” Nabi said after the match.
“I have a winning mentality but today me and my technical team observed some positive points and some negatives.”
No matter what Nabi said, the fact of the matter is that out of the entire game, Chiefs had one attempt at goal in the first half, which should be an area of concern for Nabi going into next season. The Glamour Boys lack a creative player with finesse that can unlock defenders.
