It’s in our hands, says Chiefs’ Middendorp
● Ernst Middendorp summed it up succinctly this week when he said consistency was thrown out of the window the moment the Premier Soccer League decided to finish the 2019-20 season in World Cup style in Gauteng.
The Kaizer Chiefs coach was trying his best to remain calm amid doubts about Amakhosi’s Absa Premiership title credentials after a shock 3-1 defeat by Bloemfontein Celtic on Wednesday night.
Victory in the Celtic game would have given Chiefs an almost unassailable nine-point lead at the top of the Premiership table. But three matches into the bio bubble it’s been three different results (1-1 draw vs Bidvest Wits; 3-2 win vs Polokwane City; 3-1 defeat vs Celtic) for Middendorp’s team.
It’s an outcome that would not have pleased the staunch Chiefs supporters if it were not for the similar bumbling of Amakhosi’s main rivals in the title chase, Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates.
Individual quality
“Unfortunately our ball circulation, our individual quality in attack and in defence was not on the level it should be,” was Middendorp’s reaction to Chiefs’ capitulation in the Celtic game, in which they gave away a 1-0 lead.
Worrying even more for Middendorp is the fact that Chiefs’ most influential player this season, Lebohang Manyama, was not at his best against Celtic.
The Chiefs coach confirmed that Manyama was carrying a knock that will also keep him out of today’s critical encounter against Stellenbosch FC at the Orlando Stadium.
It is finding proper replacements for key players like Manyama that
has exposed Middendorp’s team limitations.
“We haven’t done well and haven’t shown the performances that we were expecting of ourselves. I’m expecting honesty from everybody because we don’t really have training sessions between the games.
“It’s not really something that we can monitor and make a judgment on,” said Middendorp.
The coach continued to defend his team’s creativity or lack thereof, with many of their goals previously coming from set pieces taken by the now absent Manyama.
“Actually it’s a way to score,” he said. “It’s a way to provide a dimension. If you look at football worldwide, a huge number of goals are scored from set pieces, corner kicks and free kicks. Of course we would like to do better in other situations.
Hopefully we’ll find the right combinations against Stellenbosch.”
That the title is still Middendorp’s team’s to lose despite Chiefs’ obvious vulnerabilities is mainly because of Sundowns.
In four matches, Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane has seen the worst of his team this season since the restart. The Brazilians have picked up only three out of a possible 12 points to remain five behind Chiefs, with five games remaining.
Possible title-deciding clash
One of those five matches is the possible title-deciding clash against Chiefs on Thursday.
Chiefs could have come to this week’s match with more than one rival sniping at their heels had Pirates not squandered their own opportunities.
Josef Zinnbauer’s Pirates have fizzled out of the race, moving from third to fifth after only managing three draws since the return of football early this month.
It could have been worse for Chiefs had they failed to produce one of the remarkable comebacks in their 3-2 win over Polokwane last Saturday.
The German-born coach was at his sarcastic best when asked to assess where the title was going.
“I was definitely not one of the guys who celebrated on Monday (when Sundowns lost 3-2 to Cape Town City).
“If you’re long into football, you’ll understand the unexpected results. This is something you can’t really explain. For us it’s now about staying calm, not panicking and looking to the next game and not counting points and counting positions and expecting results in other fields. It’s in our hands.”
The Chiefs fans will hope so too, despite their team’s unpredictability.