Kaizer Chiefs mentor Arthur Zwane reckons that the entire defence let the club down after a poor season as the Soweto giants’ head coach.
Zwane was speaking after Chiefs’ 1-0 defeat to Cape Town City in a DStv Premiership clash on Saturday, 20 May at FNB Stadium.
In the just-ended 2022/23 season, the same old defensive problems cost Amakhosi dearly which saw them finish fifth on the table with 44 from 30 outings.
As a result, Chiefs have gone in their eighth year without winning a trophy, let alone missing out on the CAF inter-club football.
However, Zwane also put the blame on the injuries faced by the club throughout the season which let the Glamour Boys to be inconsistent.
HOW KAIZER CHIEFS DEFENCE LET THEMSELVES DOWN
“Unfortunately, as you could have seen. You look at the goals that we conceded this season, the entire defence let us down,” said Zwane.
“Hence we started now changing. We had to change Zitha [Kwinika] for Edmilson Dove at the centre-back. Dove is a left-back but because we wanted that balance of playing and someone who could help with the organisation.
“At some point, we were one-dimensional from the back with Zitha because he’s a right-footed player. So, that gave our opponents a chance to channel us in one direction and trap us there. That’s how we actually conceded some of the goals early in the season.
“When we thought we got better when we got Dove while we were looking for a left centre-back but we couldn’t get one at that time.
“We had to say let’s come up with a plan and move Dove to the left centre-back because he got the qualities as well. At the [Mozambican] national team he plays as a centre-back, as we also depended on the experience of Hlanti.”
The 49-year-old coach continued: “However, you could also see with the performance of Hlanti that the pressure was too much because of the age.
“He [Hlanti] needed someone to help him sometimes. Unfortunately, we relied on him too much because of his experience, and at some point, we were badly exposed because of that.”
Now, Amakhosi will have to go back to the drawing board to see where they can fix and bring back the glory days at the club next season.
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