Why Chiefs axed Ntseki
In the last edition of Soccer Laduma, we looked at six key things for Kaizer Chiefs coach Molefi Ntseki to work on during the international break. Although he had a handful of players away with their respective countries, it represented a chance to spend two weeks working on general tactical themes as well as opposition-specific ideas. Unfortunately, another cup exit, this time to AmaZulu FC, meant yet another route to silverware was blocked and they’ll now have to wait for the Nedbank Cup to potentially end their nineyear drought. With just a solitary win in seven matches and four blanks fired in the last six, the axe has fallen on the coach with more problem areas emerging with every match. The cracks were starting to get bigger and not one single department in the team was functioning to full effect. With the Soweto Derby just over two weeks away, Soccer Laduma delves deeply into the laundry list of concerns and problem areas and compile a list of reasons why the Amakhosi board felt the need to take decisive action, with Cavin Johnson taking charge in the short-term.
Does the timing make sense?
This is the biggest question over this abrupt sacking. We have just had a two-week FIFA break, which would have been an ideal time for a new coach to work with the team and try to bed down some ideas and patters of play. All over the world, we see coaches lose their job before an international fortnight for exactly this reason.
Added to that, there is a six-week break coming soon for the Africa Cup of Nations. Kaizer Chiefs are not expected to have more than two or three players in the Bafana Bafana squad, at best, so making a coaching change at the end of 2023 would also have been an ideal time. The club’s board could have begun the search for a new coach and could have had him in place by the turn of the year to enjoy a six-week “preseason” ahead of hosting TS Galaxy on 13 February.
If we break down Molefi Ntseki’s time at the Naturena-based outfit, it makes for bizarre reading. He came into the club in May 2021 as Head of Technical and Youth Development for the Academy. After just a season there, he moved into the head coach role and has now departed completely. Considering Cavin Johnson has stepped up to caretaker coach, it’s the second time that a person employed to improve the academy has had his remit changed. We may see in a few years that the academy pays the price for all this disruption and it could require many years for first-team products to emerge again.
Too much tinkering defensively
If we look at the early weeks of the season, it appeared that the former Bafana Bafana coach would be using his two newly acquired centrebacks as his preferred pairing. Given Msimango settled in quickly and looked like a good mix between athletic ability, protecting his box and ball-playing prowess. For the past three games, he has been dropped in favour of Njabulo Ngcobo. As Soccer Laduma reported, that ended a run of 60 consecutive full matches played by Msimango since 2021 for TS Galaxy and Amakhosi.
Ntseki put that decision down to rotation and keeping players fresh, but after three encounters on the bench for Msimango, it’s clearly become a technical and not a physical decision. All the work done to build an understanding and cohesion between Thatoyaone Ditlhokwe and Msimango has been lost. We’ve seen three different left backs in recent weeks and two different right backs. With Brandon Petersen injured and also being rotated previously against SuperSport United, there is lots of disruption to a key area for no good reason! No wonder we saw the side conceding cheap goals from crosses or from the second or third phase of set-pieces. Putting together a settled defence is the first task for the new coach.
Ox: Like a fish out of water
The signing of Sibongiseni Mthethwa came on the back of his outstanding form for Stellenbosch FC. The Winelands club may play exciting football, but their style is much more focused on counterattacking and transitions than that of the Soweto giants. Opponents rarely open themselves up to Chiefs and it’s not common for teams to have 60%+ of the ball against the Glamour Boys. “Ox” was excelling in a team with significantly less possession and therefore more opportunities to make tackles or interceptions on the opponents. At his current team, he is now expected to have more touches of the ball and to receive off the back four and to start attacks. Opponents know that passing isn’t one of the player’s main strengths. They can either press him into mistakes or just stand off and let him have the ball, knowing there isn’t much incision in his distribution. It’s not to say that Mthethwa can’t be coached to build play effectively and with penetration from the number six role, but right now, it’s not something in his locker. Ntseki spoke glowingly about the 29-year-old and must have had a big part in his signing. Yet, there feels like a disconnect between the style of play at Chiefs and that which allowed the player to flourish in the Boland.
Poor preparation: Two defeats to back five systems
That brings us to another problem area where the coach fell short. The last two games have seen Chiefs beaten by opponents using a back five shape defensively. That system causes problems for the Soweto giants for a number of reasons. Firstly, it means that when they’re pressing, it’s usually the Chiefs front three pushing onto the three centrebacks of the opponents. This leaves space in wide areas and an easy outball to the wingbacks. It also drags the Glamour Boys’ attacking shape very narrow and gives no width on turnovers.
Secondly, the lack of space in the half-spaces is a factor, whilst the number nine will be up against three central defenders in the box. We saw Ranga Chivaviro play very well in the first half against AmaZulu FC, dropping off with his back to goal to link things together. He made smart passes for Keagan Dolly, George Matlou and Yusuf Maart, but it meant a lack of presence in the area when the final ball came into the mixer. Another factor is that the opposition using a 5-3-2 or 5-4-1 means lots of time and space to have the ball in deeper areas for Chiefs. Mthethwa is not the only player who can be allowed the ball, but the same applies to Ditlhokwe (coming from a direct team under Kaitano Tembo and Gavin Hunt) and also Edmilson Dove, who is hardly going to drive forward to exploit overloads in the areas. Ditlhokwe has struggled to build play from the back having barely ever done it since he was signed by Matsatsantsa. You had to ask yourself if Ntseki learnt anything from the 1-0 loss to Cape Town City as we didn’t see any particular ideas to break down Usuthu’s back five in the Carling Knockout. He would have seen the Durban-based side using the same formation all season and surely could have adjusted his tactics to penetrate more down the sides.
Considering the coach had two weeks to prepare for the cup tie, and that he also faced the Citizens in the MTN8 and Mamelodi Sundowns, who both played a back three system, it’s alarming that the same problems were seen repeatedly. The analysts can do all the clips and reports they want, but that analysis work has to translate into training ground sessions. Ntseki didn’t seem to be able to come up with bespoke plans for different opponents and systems.
Slow starts: The XI lacks goals
When we saw the starting line-up last weekend, with Ashley Du Preez injured and both Christian Saile and Pule Mmodi dropped, it lacked goal scorers and goal threat. A quick check of Matlou’s stats show a player with zero goals in 47 appearances and over 2 000 minutes since returning to local shores. Tebogo Potsane has scored five goals in 140 appearances for Free State Stars, Bloemfontein Celtic, Royal AM and now Amakhosi. He has scored just two goals since March 2020 and we saw why against AmaZulu: Dolly, Matlou and others got into those “prime assist zones”, only to have no one arriving to
convert. Edson Castillo is the top scorer this season, but he was unable to start having travelled to South America on Venezuela duty. Mmodi scored twice against the same opponents in August and yet was left out. Ntseki waited until very late to bring on Mmodi and regular gamechanger Saile and paid the price… maybe he was playing for extra time! Whilst Matlou is a joy to watch, you have to surround him with finishers because he certainly isn’t one.
That was a concern all season as Chiefs started very slowly in many matches and barely even managed a shot in the first half of numerous early-season fixtures. When a team only wakes up after half-time or once several substitutions are made, then you immediately question the preparation during the week. To be fair, this is nothing new for the Soweto giants as we constantly heard Arthur Zwane say his team “played in patches” during postmatch interviews last season.
The midfield balance was off
For the side to play nine fixtures this season before making their move for Mthethwa, a player with a much-publicised release clause, shows that the ex-Bafana coach wasn’t satisfied with his midfield. A pure destroyer like “Ox” is meant to free up others to get forward, arrive in the box or to help overload the wide areas. In Soccer Laduma’s last feature, we pointed out how much work the coach had to do to get Castillo and Maart (or Matlou and others) to crash the penalty area and to score goals as number eights. The late international call-up for Castillo meant no time to work with him on the training ground, whilst Mthethwa was also on international duty with Bafana. The one remainer was Maart, but we barely saw forward runs from him against Usuthu. In reality, Mthethwa needs Maart deeper next to him to balance out the passing abilities (or deficiencies) in the first phase. However, Castillo can’t play as a number 10 in a 4-2-3-1. Whichever way you look at it, the engine room doesn’t appear to be finely tuned at all. There is energy and quality, but all three options don’t quite suit a 4-3-3 nor a 4-2-3-1 to an optimum level. Within the Amakhosi squad, there are three pure number 10s in Mduduzi Mdantsane, Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and Mduduzi Shabalala, but they were either marginalised or Ntseki could not get any sort of tune out of them, especially Mdantsane.
Ntseki didn’t trust youth!
Considering his background in the national youth squads, many expected the lanky gaffer to continue the work started by Zwane in integrating talented young players. Instead, we again saw a coach who simply favoured experienced, older players and wasn’t brave enough to rock the boat and use youngsters ahead of these big-name players. This is exactly what Ntseki did with the senior national team, recalling older players like Erick Mathoho, largely sticking with Stuart Baxter’s 2019 Afcon squad and even handing starts to 30-year-old Gladwin Shitolo and 32-yearold Ruzaigh Gamildien.
Players who showed loads of promise last season, particularly Samkelo Zwane and Shabalala, have been largely unused substitutes or even sat in the stands. Granted, there is now more quality and competition in midfield, but he could have involved them as substitutes at the very least. If Samkelo Zwane was getting minutes, it’s unlikely that Chiefs would have spent a huge transfer fee on Mthethwa. It made little sense to sign Mdantsane when Shabalala and “Mshini” are around. Whoever decided on that addition clearly didn’t do a proper squad “audit”, something Ntseki constantly stated he was a big part of.
Tough examinations ahead
Seeing as Ntseki had a teaching background, let’s use a school metaphor: Kaizer Chiefs face some very difficult examinations ahead. Clearly, the board felt he wasn’t the right man to go into this crucial set of matches. Golden Arrows are up next and they’re absolutely flying this season, sitting second on the DStv Premiership table thanks to just one defeat in comparison to four for Amakhosi. A home game against bottom-dwelling Cape Town Spurs follows that, and even a draw there would be an absolute disaster for the Glamour Boys. A defeat to a side that has lost all nine encounters since promotion is unthinkable and perhaps the board feel like even that match isn’t a likely three points.
Then comes the Soweto Derby against a Buccaneers side with three trophies in the last 12 months… a far cry from zero pieces of silverware in eight years. Ntseki spoke about not comparing Chiefs to Pirates as his team is “running their own race”. The problem is that supporters will definitely be making comparisons!
The new coach has to sit down and very carefully plan how to set up his team in goal, at fullback, in central defence, in the midfield three and in the front areas. There is not one single position or unit where there are no serious concerns in player quality, tactical fit or current form. Ntseki was telling us that preparation and performances are better than results suggest, but four wins in 12 matches in all competitions, a 33% win rate, is not good enough for the country’s most-supported club. Things may have been about to get even worse in coming weeks.