Ntseki’s FIFA break to-do list

Although the defeat to Cape Town City saw a very tepid, toothless performance, one positive was the return of Keagan Dolly after 163 days out with a serious knee injury. The former Montpellier star had just over 30 minutes of action and his quality was immediately evident. With their opponents sitting very deep, Kaizer Chiefs needed some quality around the box. The pint-sized attacker had one shot from range which drew Darren Keet into a save, a last-gasp effort which flashed fractionally wide and a freekick delivery from which Njabulo Ngcobo missed the side’s best opportunity of the match. This two-week FIFA break is a chance for coach Molefi Ntseki to work with the 30-year-old on forming relationships with the four new attackers that the Soweto giants have signed since the playmaker’s injury in April (Pule Mmodi, Jasond Gonzalez, Ranga Chivaviro and Tebogo Potsane). So, whilst getting the exMamelodi Sundowns man match-fit is key, forming some chemistry and cohesion with his teammates may be the biggest benefit of this break.

Work on his number eights

After the loss to coach Eric Tinkler’s men, the coach said in his post-match interview with SuperSport TV, “The challenge we had was having more of our eights adding numbers in attack and being in goalscoring areas. We stayed too deep and then enjoyed possession in the wrong areas. We needed to use the space in front of their centrebacks. We were a bit late to get into the box, especially from our eights.”

Without doubt, this is something he will want to work on during training sessions. The arrival of Sibongiseni Mthethwa is expected to see Edson Castillo and Yusuf Maart used higher up in most games. In last week’s Soccer Laduma feature, we delved into the Venezuelan’s ability to get into scoring areas and looked at Maart’s brief period as a number eight last season. Against City, neither player arrived in the box enough and it left almost three deeplying midfielders. Ntseki hinted that George Matlou was set to start before a late injury and he has been excelling in the engine room of late. The head coach will need to spend some sessions working on movement in midfield, finishing and halfspace runs. Mthethwa is away after coach Hugo Broos called him up for Bafana Bafana’s two friendlies against Eswatini and Ivory Coast, and Mduduzi Mdantsane has taken Percy Tau’s place in the squad, while Castillo has been called up for 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Brazil and Chile, so unfortunately, neither of them will be able to train a great deal on getting the midfield balance a bit better. The former Stellenbosch FC star is going to need to improve his ball-playing ability, so you suspect that Ntseki may secretly have preferred it if Broos hadn’t recalled the 29-year-old.

Be less reliant on Du Preez

If we look at Amakhosi teams in the last 10 years, very few sides have been as a reliant on one key player as the current squad is on Ashley Du Preez. Of course, he is badly missed when he doesn’t play, but it’s more about how much of the attacking play is funnelled through him. The speedster is the key man for high pressing, is the one player to consistently challenge the space behind the opposition defence and he often provides good service on the occasions he is used wide. Basically, if teams nullify him, more than half the job is done. When Ntseki was asked after the City defeat about his side’s inability to use Du Preez’s pace, he said, “They were fully aware because they did not give us that space. They defended very deep.”

On the occasions when sides play a low block, the Soweto giants are lacking in ideas. They tend to move

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s we head into an international break, Kaizer Chiefs are languishing eighth on the DStv Premiership table. With just one win in six matches in all competitions, and three defeats in the last four, this brief hiatus comes at the right time.

It gives coach Molefi Ntseki time to work on the training ground, drilling down patterns of play, set-pieces, defensive organisation and also focusing on improving the players’ fitness. With only two players in the Bafana Bafana squad and only a couple of foreigners joining

their nations, in Thatayaone Ditlhokwe, Edmilson Dove and Edson Castillo, it represents a chance to reset and refresh. In this feature, Soccer Laduma looks at six items on the coach’s to-do list in order to get his side winning games in the short term and in the longer term.

Du Preez wider in those games to use his wing play, but there doesn’t seem to be a plan to hurt teams with wide interplay/overloads, cutbacks and one-versus-one actions. Ntseki could spend some time working on alternative ways to attack and also look to coach Du Preez on what to do when teams simply give no space behind their backline. The top players with pace, like Mohamed Salah and Kylian Mbappe, can still hurt you when teams camp on the edge of the area. Du Preez needs some high-level coaching to become even better.

Figure out the left back issue

This season, the former Bafana coach has used three different left backs in Sifiso Hlanti, Reeve Frosler and Edmilson Dove. The latter did not play a single match as a fullback last season as Arthur Zwane saw him as a centre-back. Due to serious injuries, it’s been a long time since the dreadlocked left-footer played consistently in his natural role. There are question marks over whether he still has the legs and pace to overlap and underlap like the player we saw arrive on these shores in the Mother City – the knee injuries have taken their toll. In the last encounter, Edmilson was at fault for Khanyisa Mayo’s winner and we’ve seen Hlanti be responsible for goals by Khuliso Mudau and Peter Shalulile in recent weeks. It feels like a problem position which is boiling under the surface and not getting much attention. This break may allow Ntseki to work on rebuilding Hlanti’s confidence, trying out Happy Mashiane in that position or working on Reeve Frosler playing in that role in a friendly match or two. Dove is set to play for Mozambique against Angola and Nigeria during the FIFA break. He tends to play as a fullback for his country and this will give him a valuable chance to regain full match fitness after his latest injury.

Refine the long ball game

In general, Ntseki’s side has tried to play out from the back this season, often to their detriment. However, we’ve seen a much more direct approach towards the end of matches. Chivaviro or Gonzalez have entered the action and Christian Saile, with all his physicality, is also a regular substitute. The Naturenabased side tend to hit those more robust attackers with long passes and a more visible crossing game is usually seen. Unfortunately, it hasn’t always worked very well. Rhulani Mokwena spoke about bringing on Brian Onyango to deal with Gonzalez and we saw Cape Town City’s Lorenzo Gordinho dominate Chivaviro from a plethora of crosses in the last outing. Tinkler even threw on 1.95m tall centre-back Ramazani Tshimanga to help defend crosses. Teams are wise to this strategy and Chiefs are not particularly good at it. It’s also clearly a distant Plan B to turn to “helicopter football” when chasing games towards the end. Ntseki needs to spend some time on his side’s deliveries, movements and positioning when they turn to this direct game, as well as having the team’s best crossers – Dolly, Frosler and even Mashiane – on the pitch when the ‘bomb squad’ is introduced.

Get on the same page as Mangethe

This season has seen Ntseki do a lot of things very differently to what Zwane did last season. We’ve seen Brandon Petersen being made captain, a more robust number six acquired in the transfer window (when Zwane favours a ‘regista’) and we’ve also not had much sighting of younger players like Samkelo Zwane, Mduduzi Shabalala or Nkosingiphile Ngcobo. Ntseki clearly doesn’t see Dove as a centre-back like Zwane did and some regulars under the previous coach, such as Dillon Solomons and Siyethemba Sithebe, are nowhere to be seen. It does make you wonder if the two men actually think alike or whether their football philosophies are very different. In a future edition, we are set to look deeply at the stats and trends from last season versus those seen this term. Chiefs spoke about continuity being the main driver behind the former Bloemfontein Celtic assistant coach’s appointment, yet maybe the incumbent and his predecessor aren’t on the same page after all.