Zwane’s Chiefs blow hot and cold, but look on right path

Arthur Zwane definitely has his work cut out at Kaizer Chiefs. When he gets the one thing right, the others do not correspond. 

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But the signs are there that he has an idea of what he wants to do with the team and once Zwane gets everything to gel, Chiefs should become a force.

Zwane’s team got it right at the back, where they have been weak in the first five games of the season, when they were held to a goalless draw by AmaZulu FC on Saturday evening at FNB Stadium. 

Chiefs managed to deal with Usuthu’s three-thronged attack of Gabadinho Mhango, Augustine Kwem and Bongi Ntuli who have been clinical so far this season. 

In seven games – including the MTN8 semi final – AmaZulu have scored nine goals and are among the top teams on the DStv Premiership log with 11 points. 

So, for Chiefs to be able to not concede against Usuthu after they previously. had some incidents of costly mistakes at the back is a good sign. 

But another problem has come to the fore for Zwane as his team proved to run out of ideas when in attack. They made some good attacking runs but could not find the right balls to break the Usuthu defence.

“I think we didn’t have that killer-instinct,” admitted Zwane after the match. “We did create enough chances, you know but we were not clinical enough, that’s number one. 

“Two, I think we started very slow and I believe if we had put them under pressure from the first whistle we were gonna get one (goal),” added Zwane.

In the centre, Amakhosi struggled to control the game with Usuthu’s trio of Makhehleni Makhaula, and former Chiefs stars Keagan Buchanan and George Maluleka breaking up their moves with ease. 

“Unfortunately we gave them some time and space on the ball because we knew that they wanted to play the ball between the two central defenders and look to connect with the front three.

“I think we dealt with it much better today but we were still opening those gaps for them to play in between. We could have tried to close the space quickly.

“It’s one of those where I feel in this game we deserve more but it was not to be in terms of taking those goal-scoring opportunities,” said Zwane. 

Chiefs’ next game is on September 11 away to Marumo Gallants in Polokwane. So Zwane will have some time this week to work on the shortcomings.