Amakhosi’s strong offence starts with good defence
KAIZER Chiefs star Khama Billiat credits the team’s defence for their bright start that has seen Amakhosi as the early pacesetters and strong contenders for the Absa Premiership.
Chiefs are seven points clear at the summit having played one more game than second-placed Mamelodi Sundowns. They have the second-best attack in the league, and more importantly they hold the jointbest defensive record. They have kept six clean sheets in their last six matches despite changing their goalkeepers, which shows the depth at their disposal.
That depth was put to the test against Chippa United. Fringe players rose to the occasion to win 2-0, giving coach Ernst Middendorp a good headache when it comes to picking the team that will take on Orlando Pirates at FNB Stadium tomorrow.
“I really need to give credit to our defence. It’s something that we have mastered very well. We don’t concede as much as we used to, and we don’t concede easy goals as we used to,” Billiat said.
“But there is still a lot of work to be done. We just started understanding each other better. Everyone understands the coach’s philosophy better now. It took us a little bit of time, but we are getting into it. We really look like a team right now. We are united. When you are in a good space, everything starts flowing.”
Chiefs’ defence starts in attack, which is led by Billiat, Samir Nurkovic and Leonardo Castro. Middendorp has instilled a strong work ethic where everyone gives their all and Amakhosi don’t give an inch to their opponents. It’s a big mental switch from a team that cracked easily under pressure last season, weighed down by their long barren run. This group uses that barren run as fuel to fire them to glory.
“The coach has installed something, including a high work rate and energy,” Billiat said. “It’s amazing when we play, how much we want to win every 50/50 challenge and seeing your teammate fighting so hard, it just rubs off on you and we seem to move in the right direction that way.
“That’s a huge part of our success, but there are still things that we need to fix and hopefully at the end of the season we will be where we want to be.”
Chiefs will go into this weekend’s Soweto Derby confident after knocking out Pirates in the quarter-finals of the Telkom Knockout last week. Pirates will have to work twice as hard to win this round as they will be without their captain Happy Jele and Mthokozisi Dube, who are suspended.
The two will be missed by a team that hasn’t been consistently solid at the back, struggling with Jele and Dube in the line-up. Without the pair, the job will be twice as hard as some of the likely replacements haven’t covered themselves in glory.
It will be a strong test between one of the best attacks in the country against one of the worst defences in the league.
Another battle that should be interesting is Billiat versus Thembinkosi Lorch. The two talisman of their respective clubs had a moment in Durban when Lorch stepped on Billiat. That moment led to a skirmish between both teams.
Billiat was quick to reply when asked if there is bad blood between him and Lorch after the incident.
“No! No! No! I don’t want to think like that. There is nothing personal. It’s a big game, a game where we really need to control our emotions because it comes with a lot of