OPINION: Chiefs have a welcome break but serious problems persist

While Kaizer Chiefs’ exit from the Carling Black Label Knockout signalled the end for Molefi Ntseki’s brief and uninspiring spell at the helm of Amakhosi, one man who might just be grateful for this weekend off is Ntseki’s replacement, Cavin Johnson.

Amakhosi will be spectators as the Carling Knockout quarterfinals kick off, but the Chiefs interim head coach will no doubt see an opportunity to put in work on the training ground.

Johnson had little time after being shifted from his position as Head of Youth Development at Chiefs to prepare for Saturday’s game against Golden Arrows, so it would be cruel to put too much weight on the 64-year-old’s role in Amakhosi’s latest DStv Premiership loss.

Going on form, after all, Mabhuti Khenyeza’s Arrows are on a roll, currently the closest challengers on the table to Mamelodi Sundowns.

And it doesn’t help any coach when your goalkeeper commits the sort of blunder Brandon Peterson did to gift Arrows the lead in Hammarsdale.

Chiefs fought well, in parts, on a patchy pitch at Mpumalanga Stadium, and even drew level, albeit with a goal that was offside enough to be a total embarrassment for the match officials.

In the end, however, Knox Mutizwa’s love of scoring against Chiefs proved decisive, and Johnson has been left with plenty more to ponder ahead of Chiefs’ next game, a DStv Premiership meeting with Cape Town Spurs on 8 November.

The Chiefs coach will no doubt hope to have a few players back from injury by then, and to have placed more of his tactical imprint on the squad.

Hospitable Spurs

Chiefs couldn’t ask for a much more hospitable opponent than Spurs, who have lost every single game this season. Spurs play Orlando Pirates at home on Wednesday before taking on Chiefs, and while three points in each of those games might just kickstart a season in the mud, only the most optimistic Urban Warriors fan would put a bet on that outcome.

Johnson, for his part, needs to focus on the problems in his own squad, starting with a goalkeeping conundrum.

He went back to Peterson in goal against Arrows, ahead of veteran Itumeleng Khune, and it backfired somewhat, though Khune has not exactly excelled in what is surely his final season at Chiefs.

Bruce Bvuma is the anomaly here, a man who has been in the Bafana Bafana squad, but who has never, at 28 years old now, managed more than eight league appearances for Amakhosi in a single campaign.

This season Bvuma has made exactly none, and that does not look like changing any time soon. Johnson may feel he needs to keep faith in Peterson for now, but this is not the first error of this kind made by Peterson this season.

It was Khune who played in Ntseki’s last two matches in charge, a sign that perhaps he had lost a little faith in the Capetonian.

At the other end of the pitch, meanwhile, Chiefs’ attackers also need to find some fire. Pule Mmodi is Chiefs’ top scorer this season, with just three goals, and he was nowhere to be seen in the Chiefs squad on Saturday.