Komphela slams PSL coaches

Kaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela says his colleagues in the Absa Premiership should not complain when they struggle to outsmart each other tactically.


Komphela has been criticised by some coaches for ‘parking the bus’.

“Listen you can’t falter anybody for the way they play, anybody who defends a bit low and comes out on a transition that is a strategy. Now if he does that against a team that wants to impose themselves and be all over the field and dominate and that team suffers a setback, it is the cleverness of the coach and the ability of the players and we have to accept that is what is happening in the PSL,” said Komphela.

The Amakhosi coach believes his formation is not defensive at all and that the only reason it is frowned upon is because some coaches fail to find a formation that can compete with it.

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“I know some coaches complain about us that we are parking the bus, they are not packing the bus it is part to their playing strategy in defence, if they are packing the bus then find a way to open them up, don’t insult the coach, think better. You want them to play the way you would like them to play then complement them once you beat them,” added Komphela.

Komphela lamented what he called the lack of respect amongst PSL coaches for tactical prowess when working on a game plan.

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“It becomes painful to me when a colleague doesn’t see things as a coach and sees things like someone else who is not on the coaching seat. I refrain from commenting because it will reflect on their level of thinking and how they see things as a coach, but you respect that and you can’t say things about that. If you play three centre-backs, three midfielders and four attackers, that is offensive. It’s high offence. The most painful part of it is who does it, had it been Mourinho then it would be seen as a master plan, but it is done by your own, the fact that we have so much self-disrespect when our own does something we disrespect it. However if we had a higher level of self-respect then we would escalate the observation with respect but we turn to escalate it with disrespect.”

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