Two poor campaigns

Erick Mathoho came into last season on the back of a disappointing campaign in 2017/18 under Steve Komphela. In that final season under the Kroonstad-born coach, he was asked to play both in a back four and as part of three central defenders, whilst caretaker coach Patrick Mabedi used a standard four man backline in his three games in charge.

Regardless of the shape, the former Bloemfontein Celtic man struggled badly and had possibly the worst season of his career up to that point. In his five starts in a back four, Kaizer Chiefs kept only one clean sheet and failed to win any of those matches. In the game where the Soweto giants used a back three, they conceded more than twice as many goals with Mathoho in the side than when he wasn’t playing, keeping nine clean sheets in 12 games in that formation in his absence. He just was not suited to playing on the sides of the defence and was never used as the middle centre-back as Daniel Cardoso had that role locked down.

Going into last season, a big improvement was expected, but it ended up being the worst season of Tower’s career by a long distance. Initially, he found himself on the bench under Giovanni Solinas and then missed four games with a groin injury. After a few more matches on the bench, the Italian recalled Mathoho in a game against Golden Arrows to try to shore up a leaky backline. The experienced centre-back ended up conceding a penalty and being exposed by the pace of Abafana Bes’thende on the counter-attack. An ankle injury after that led to 22 games on the sidelines, missing the first four months of Middendorp’s time in charge. He returned for the final league game of the season, but again looked uncomfortable on the side of a back three against Chippa United and was taken off at half-time. He was not in the matchday squad for the Nedbank Cup final against TS Galaxy and ended the season with only five appearances to his name.