Nabi hoping Chiefs don’t ‘lose something’ for AmaZulu clash

Kaizer Chiefs head coach Nasreddine Nabi has said it is a challenge to keep his players as match sharp as he would like.

Amakhosi are only getting a slow trickle of matches to start the Betway Premiership season.

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Amakhosi will face AmaZulu on Wednesday evening at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. They played their only other league match some 11 days ago, a 2-1 win over Marumo Gallants at the Free State Stadium.

Nabi’s Chiefs delayed

Chiefs are victims of their own failures from last season. They failed to qualify for the MTN8. Chiefs have also not been helped by the delayed start to the domestic league campaign.

“The turnaround times between matches can present challenges. If you have more than one week’s rest between games you can lose something,” Nabi told the Kaizer Chiefs website.

“But our fitness coaches have been working hard to get the players in the best possible shape to perform at a high level.”

Chiefs have a fully fit squad available for the game against AmaZulu. They will be looking to continue their winning start to the season under their new head coach.

Chiefs’ Nabi knows Martin well

“Our preparation has been good. We have watched the previous game of our opponents, AmaZulu, and analysed the strengths of the team and some areas where we believe they have weaknesses that we can exploit,” added Nabi. The Chiefs coach knows Usuthu coach Pablo Franco Martin well from their time in Tanzania.

Nabi was coach of Young Africans in the 2021/22 season while Martin was the coach of Simba FC.

“I know him, he is my friend and in Tanzania he was one of the best coaches. He is someone whose ability I respect, so we will se how it turns out. I hope everyone will enjoy the contest,” added the Chiefs coach.

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AmaZulu are looking to bounce back after losing their first Betway Premiership game of the season 2-1 away to Polokwane City.

“We’re quite confident. We showed last season that we can perform really well against the big clubs,” said AmaZulu and former Orlando Pirates midfielder Ben Motshwari, according to Usuthu’s official website.

“We’re trying to adjust the things that we didn’t get right in the previous game. But everything looks positive, it’s just small minor details that we have to correct.”