More goals needed!

At this stage of the season, approximately 43% into the campaign, that Chiefs have just 18 goals to their name is a slightly disappointing return. Although they have scored five penalties, when we delve deeper into how those spot-kicks were won and whether they were legitimate calls, we can see that they truly earned those goals, as all of those decisions were correct. Many point to receiving three penalties in a single match against Stellenbosch, but former FIFA referee Ace Ncobo analysed referee Tshidiso Maruping’s decisions and all three were indeed legitimate penalties. The Soweto giants did win two fortunate missed penalties earlier in the season, both won by Sekgota. Solomons missed against AmaZulu after a close-range handball was penalised, whilst Billiat had a penalty saved against Sundowns after Sekgota crumbled under minimal contact, which Victor Gomes deemed a spot-kick.

There are some promising signs in the quality of Chiefs’ build-up play goals of late, plus their early-season goals from high pressing. We still need to see improvement in their fast breaks (counter-attacks) to maximise the speed at their disposal, whilst setplays are a relatively untapped avenue to winning matches right now. At this stage, six goals from Bimenyimana is a good return, even if only two have come from open play. He earned two of his four penalties himself and, to be fair, his penalty-taking has been excellent, often sending the goalkeeper the wrong way. Dolly’s four goals is a reasonable return if we consider his poor early-season form. He has netted thrice in October as he returned to his best level. Du Preez’s three goals is somewhat underwhelming, especially after so many good chances were spurned and considering how much money Chiefs paid for him. Billiat is yet to score and has been the biggest let-down, whilst Sekgota has also spurned plenty of opportunities and has to start adding goals to his game ASAP.

There is work to be done for Zwane during this mini pre-season ahead of the season’s resumption because there won’t be much time to train between January and May due to fixture congestion. By the end of the season, you’d hope for a handful of Billiat goals, Bimenyimana to be in double figures and for Du Preez to also be pushing towards 10+ goals. Anything less from that trio and Amakhosi may need to re-enter the transfer market in the off-season to solve their goalscoring problems. If we look at the assist charts, we can also see how many goals come from penalties and somewhat fortunate moments like passes being tackled into a Chiefs player’s path instead of from creative midfield play. A full eight of Amakhosi’s 18 goals were unassisted, so more is needed from especially the likes of Dolly and Nkosingiphile Ngcobo in the second half of this season!