Kaizer Chiefs assistant coach Khalil Ben Youssef has predicted when the club will be ready to challenge for the Betway Premiership title. Amakhosi have not won the league title since the 2014/15 season.
At the start of the season, they brought in coach Nasreddine Nabi in the hopes that he would rebuild a competitive team. They are currently preparing for the Nedbank Cup last 32 match against ABC Motsepe side Free Agents FC. The match is scheduled for Sunday at the FNB Stadium.
With the league seemingly in the grasp of Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates, Chiefs will be hoping to lift the Nedbank Cup. Having played 14 games in the Betway Premiership, the Soweto giants are 12 points behind Sundowns, who have two games in hand.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s match, Ben Youssef said securing victory in this tournament is among their top priorities. The tournament winner gets a ticket to participate in the CAF Confederation Cup, a competition to which Ben Youssef expresses a desire to return.
HOW LONG KHALIL BEN YOUSSEF THINKS IT’LL TAKE BEFORE CHIEFS CHALLENGES FOR THE LEAGUE TITLE
“To be honest with you, what we’ve discussed about the project at Kaizer Chiefs is to beat the other team. [And] then next year or in two or three years, it’s to fight for the league,” Ben Youssef said.
He believes it is important for a club of Chiefs’ magnitude to return to continental football.
“We have to come back. When I was young, I remember I used to see Kaizer Chiefs in the African Cup [CAF competitions] in the finals or semifinals; it was one of the best teams in Africa,” he added.
“So, we want to come back to Africa [play in CAF competitions]. If you want to come back to Africa, you have two choices: you have to finish in the top three or win this cup. As a big team, we know [that in] every competition you play, you play to win the competition.
“If you play in the league, you play to win the league. Every cup you have to play to win, we don’t know what they prepared for us, but we will do our best.”
MENTAL STRENGTH WILL BE KEY, CHIEFS PLAYERS TOLD
Meanwhile, Ben Youssef warned that mental strength would be important in Sunday’s game.
“For us as coaches, when you play a cup game, you have to be careful when you play a team in the lower division. Like I said, we have to prepare mentally; it’s a very difficult game, it’s a cup game. It’s not like when you play a big team against a big team, the players prepare themselves already because they know they have to perform, and they have to do well,” he added.
“As Africans, we have problems when we play against teams in the lower division; we always think we’ll win the game before we play, and for that, we’ve discussed it a lot with them [players], we prepared them that this is going to be one of the most difficult games this season. We know what we have to do.”
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