Chiefs coach sheds light on Nkosingiphile Ngcobo’s tactical shift
Kaizer Chiefs head coach Nasreddine Nabi has shed light on the altered tactical deployment of Nkosingiphile Ngcobo in their recent league game against Magesi FC.
The Glamour Boys collected maximum points against Magesi in the Betway Premiership at FNB Stadium on Tuesday night. Ashley Du Preez came off the bench to score the all-important goal for the Soweto giants in the 69th minute.
The positive results saw Chiefs end their two-match winless run after suffering defeats in the last two league games.
Before the crunch tie against Magesi, Chiefs lost 4-1 to SuperSport United two weeks ago. Chiefs also suffered a 1-0 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns at Lucas Moripe Stadium this past weekend.
In a home clash against Dikwena tša Meetse, the Naturena-based side played in patches, struggling to impose themselves and create enough goal-scoring opportunities.
While the score was still at 0-0, Nabi brought in Ngcobo in place of Yusuf Maart in the 65th minute. The left-footed midfielder helped Chiefs hold onto the ball more, which resulted in a goal a few minutes later.
NASREDDINE NABI EXPLAINS NGCOBO’S ROLE IN DEEP-LYING MIDFIELD
Ngcobo, who usually plays as an attacking midfielder, took up a deep-lying midfield role against Magesi and Nabi has explained the thinking around the decision.
“It’s true that Ngcobo played a different role than usual. We felt that in other moments, Magesi were defending too deep and we needed more techical quality to link up midfield and attack,” said Nabi.
“At some point, you need to take a risk to get the results you want, and that’s the risk we took. But we felt that we were a bit unbalanced. We were a little bit too offensive, but we wanted to take the risk to get the results.
“We believe that Ngcobo is a very technical player and very smart, but we want him to be a bit more physical in his game because when you play in the middle of the park, there’s not enough space, people get to you very quickly. We need him to get that quality in his game.”
In the current campaign under Nabi, the 25-year-old has struggled to cement a regular place in the starting line-up after featuring in seven games across all competitions.
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