What has impressed Mngqithi most about Chiefs coach Nabi

While the rest of the Betway Premiership teams remain idle with all eyes being on the sold-out MTN8 final between Orlando Pirates and Stellenbosch FC at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi is impressed with what he has seen from Kaizer Chiefs so far this season.

Amakhosi have shown signs of improvement under new coach Nasreddine Nabi and their resurgence hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Their only blip came in the 2-1 loss to Sundowns after back-to-back wins against Marumo Gallants and AmaZulu. 

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Despite being complementary to his counterpart Nabi who is looking to end their nine-year trophy drought, Mngqithi has also called on Soweto giants to be more assertive in matches if they are to get back to winning silverware. 

“The truth is that it’s refreshing to see a Kaizer Chiefs team playing like this and they must look to try and dominate matches more,” Mngqithi said.

“Because as big teams we can’t always rely on their arrest attack and good counter attacks. We must also try to put our foot forward but I’m very happy with the progress that the coach has made in a very short space of time.”

Chiefs fans are still reeling from last weekend’s defeat in a game they feel that a draw would’ve been a fair reflection of the game. Mngqithi highlighted what makes the new-look Glamour Boys so refreshing under the Tunisian coach. 

“To be honest, I think the team looks good, it looks fresh and energised. The structure that the coach is playing with is very potent and very difficult for teams to really understand.

“That is because he has that front three that is cheating and the four in midfield with the two pivots and uses (Wandile) Duba on the side and (Bradley) Cross will push a bit more and they remain with the last three which is why we wanted Tashreeq (Matthews) to be outside (Reeve) Frosler because initially we thought Duba would be that side.

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“So we wanted to make sure we stretch Frosler a little bit because Cross was never supposed to be there based on our analysis. They changed because they wanted to take care of Thapelo Morena and they brought Duba to his side which I think helped to a certain extent but I don’t think it helped that much.”