Defensive dilemma for ‘10111’

Zwane, who earned the nickname “10111” during his playing days, has a massive dilemma over who to play in the heart of defence on Sunday. In his first game after taking over from Baxter, he used a back three of Ngezana, Ramahlwe Mphahlele and Njabulo Ngcobo in the defeat at Stellenbosch. For the following match against Arrows, he moved to a back four, with Mphahlele shifting to right back and Njabulo Blom going into a central midfield role. This saw Njabulo Ngcobo make his first start all season in the heart of a back four. As we all saw, he made a terrible error to gift the ball to

Siboniso Conco for the equaliser and was later hauled off for Daniel Cardoso after further errors, triggering a furious response from the player. Ngcobo was dropped completely against Cape Town City and Cardoso handed a first start in five matches. Zwane explained the non-selection of Ngcobo, saying, “He’s not in the team because of the incident. We’re trying to protect him. He’s a footballer and you could see, even when he was substituted, he was not himself. He made about four to five mistakes, starting from first half and second half. Unfortunately, one of those mistakes was very, very costly and you

could see he couldn’t recover from it. So, I had to pull him out and save him because I’ve been there before. Unfortunately, people saw it in a different way. He was very upset with himself because he believes he can do better. He knows he came to a club where there is pressure, he also wanted to showcase his talent and perform on the day. Unfortunately, it was not his day.”

After Cardoso made a terrible howler himself to gift Cape Town City a goal last Saturday, Zwane is no closer to finding a regular partner for Ngezana. Erick Mathoho has struggled for an extended period and is injured,

whilst Austin Dube is seemingly not highly-rated by the new coach. Against Sundowns, we could see Mphahlele recalled in the heart of defence alongside Ngezana. It’s far from an ideal situation against the league’s top-scoring team and individual player. Chiefs have been quite open since the change of coach and have struggled to defend both the sides where some teams have created two-versus-one situations. Zwane may be tempted to go to a back three for this match to give some extra protection, but

he may not have three central defenders he trusts enough in order

to use that shape!