Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane has singled out the ‘disease’ that has been their biggest undoing in his maiden season as head coach.
Zwane was elevated to head coach status after years of serving in the club’s development structures and as an assistant coach.
The expectation for anyone coaching Amakhosi, especially after the lengthy trophy drought, is to restore the glory days.
INCONSISTENT SEASON
However, under Zwane, Chiefs have had an inconsistent season, winning 13 of their 27 fixtures while losing nine. They have drawn five times, having scored 31 goals in the DStv Premiership.
On Freedom Day, Chiefs collected maximum points away from home when they beat Chippa United 1-0 in Gqeberha.
The win gave them a glimmer of hope that they could still finish second in the PSL. A second-place finish would guarantee them CAF Champions League football.
However, Orlando Pirates and SuperSport United are also vying for a dance in Africa with just three rounds of fixtures remaining.
Zwane is convinced if it had not been for the so-called ‘disease’, their position on the PSL table would undoubtedly be different.
“Football is very unpredictable. We fancy our chances. We’ll always fancy our chances [to finish second]. We’re a big team, we play to win every game, and anything can happen in football. So we’ll keep on pushing.
“It doesn’t matter where we will end up. What we need to do is to keep collecting maximum points,” explained Zwane after the Chippa game.
THE KAIZER CHIEFS DISEASE
“It’s the nature of the game. I don’t think there’s any player that will go into the field and want to miss scoring chances deliberately. They try their level best, and on another day, they will get it right. They will score more than two or three or four.
“This has been our disease, the story of our season, missing chances. It would be a different story when you look at the log if we took maybe half of the chances we created. I cannot fault the players. They did everything right except for that missing link in terms of being clinical in front of goals.”
He said they were currently working on taking their chances to win games. They play Swallows next at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday.
After that, they focus on the Nedbank Cup, where they play Soweto rivals Pirates in the semifinal on Saturday, 6 May 2023.
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