A season to forget for Bernard Parker
BERNARD Parker at his best is rated as the player top coaches like Muhsin Ertugral and Gavin Hunt view as the PSL’s most coveted league-winning signing.
But the confident striker has had periods in his career – like the past season – where he goes into his shell and the goals dry up.
Played everywhere from playmaker to a deep-lying striker, a centreforward and a wing, Kaizer Chiefs this season have appeared not to know how to utilise a forward who was once the country’s most reliable goal-scorer. Parker only found the net five times in 2015-2016.
Ertugral, who worked a small miracle finding a game plan at Mpumalanga Black Aces that allowed Collins Mbesuma to finish PSL top scorer, believes the structure of Chiefs’ frontline is problematic.
“Parker is not a player who can hold up the ball with his back to the opponents. He needs to run at the defence. This type of player needs a certain type of supply,” Ertugral said.
“He needs support coming to him in certain ways and certain angles. He eliminates players, but then needs to have those connections around him.
“Everybody says, ‘Why is Collins suddenly like that?’. But it’s the way Aces are playing around him.
“Last year when Parker was very strong under Stuart Baxter, Chiefs were playing transitions, attacking the line as a unit. Now Chiefs want to play possession. And when Parker has the ball and attacks the line he lacks support.”
Previous Chiefs coach Baxter rehabilitated a low-on-confidence Parker on arriving at the club in 2012.
“I wouldn’t like to say where he’s gone backwards because I think that’s probably something his present coaching staff will work on,” Baxter said.
“But for me when Bernard is at his best is when he’s finding pockets of space from deep, rather than being the No 9 on the shoulders of people.
“He can do that, but has to be firing on all cylinders to do it properly. He’s more suited to getting a bit deep on the half-turn and linking with people, and arriving in the box from there.
“Different players just play better from different angles. Some wingers like to come off the line, some like to stay on it. You’ve got to find the best way for each individual to play.
“Then I think the one begets the other. If you play him at No 9 and he gets a few goals, you can play him there for the rest of the season because he’ll think he can do it and his confidence will be high.
“If you change something and the goals aren’t forthcoming the confidence sags. And I think that does apply to Bernard. Because sometimes I think Bernard Parker has trouble being Bernard Parker.”