Why Ntseki is sticking with erratic Petersen at Chiefs

Molefi Ntseki chooses to be fatherly in his approach to Brandon Petersen whose goalkeeping errors have proved costly for Kaizer Chiefs. 

ALSO READ: Sirino waiting on ‘knight’ to whisk him away from Sundowns

Petersen has made a few mistakes that left him wishing the earth would open up and swallow him up. 

But with the support from Ntseki, Petersen stands tall. Petersen was the only player who came out to greet the media contingent at Naturena this week. 

He greeted and shook everyone’s hands before the media interviews. He was not part of the players to be interviewed. 

Asked why he had stuck with Petersen even after proving to be error-prone, Ntseki said he had to avoid making emotional decisions.

“We have a very good technical team and goalkeeping department, with our mentor coach Rainer (Dinkelacker),” said Ntseki. 

“And I think those were mental issues (for Petersen) because when you look at his ability as a goalkeeper, he has done very well for the team. 

“Even in the past few games… But the concentration levels were a bit down, that’s how he made those mistakes.

Petersen has Ntseki’s full support

“It’s not only him that made mistakes that led to us losing the game. I think it’s the whole team. 

“When you look at it, it’s a series of mistakes that led to him making the last mistake, which we normally look at to as his mistake.

“I understand that mistakes like this will always be costly, but these are the mistakes that we have to eliminate in our game.”

ALSO READ: Officials in Sundowns, Chiefs game suspended

Ntseki said he will not discard any player just because they’ve made mistakes, but will rather work with them and help them become better. 

“When one makes a mistake, you don’t just make changes without actually zooming into the problem and helping out…

“Because you might make changes emotionally, and what if the next player comes in and makes the same mistake?

“So what is important here is that we are a professional team, and we are also treating our players as professionals.”