Summary – the style is confused
If we summarise, there is very little in how Chiefs are playing which mirrors the teams and style of their glorious past. You have a team who tries to high press, but the defensive line is usually camped quite deep. This does not tie up well as the spaces in between are too big. You have an Amakhosi side who plays short from goal kicks, but they don’t have many midfielders (Maart aside), who can receive short passes in tight spaces so Msimango and especially Dove and Kwinika tend to hit long diagonal passes. Why even ask Bvuma to play short initially? At times, the goalkeeper will also pump the ball forward.
Chiefs are extremely focused on, and occasionally effective at, transition moments and counter attacks. Yet they don’t bring all their players back to draw opponents out to make space to exploit. We have lots of things in the style that don’t really make sense and it feels like the approach is disjointed. Perhaps Johnson is missing his trusty sidekick Alan Clark, who tended to do a lot of the coaching on the training ground at Platinum Stars, SuperSport United and Black Leopards.
We have covered the lack of flair and dribbling in the ranks and that is partly down to using guys like Shabalala or Ngcobo in the wide areas instead of more natural wingers. Another factor is the complete confusion over how to maximise Ashley Du Preez. Against Stellenbosch FC alone, he played three different positions. The speedster started playing behind Duba as a number ten/second striker, but he moved to the number nine role at half time. Once Chivaviro came on, Du Preez was used out on the left.
When you spend R10 million on a player, you should know what his best position is by now!
Overall, the best way to summarise the ‘style’ at Chiefs right now is from Johnson himself. He bemoaned the display against Stellenbosch FC and that at least shows he isn’t deluded or living with his head in the sand! Cavin told SuperSport TV: “I thought the performance we put on tonight was not even half the performance we put on Saturday. We just didn’t get it right tonight, I’m not happy with the performance of a lot of the players. The players need to play proper technically, they need to be better technically. In a lot of moments where we have to play, they have to pass the ball better. Play proper ball, don’t just kick the ball and that for me is very disturbing from my players.” ❐