New season Chiefs ‘still a work in progress’

But that is to be expected whenever there is a change in coaching personnel and some alterations in the playing style and players used.

It is for this reason that Steve Komphela,

is not overly perturbed that the Absa Premiership champions appear somewhat weaker than the team Stuart Baxter led to championship and cup glory last season.

But being the proud coach he is and well aware of the high standards expected of the side he is leading, Komphela admits that Chiefs can do better.

Deep in the bowels of the Free State Stadium on Sunday immediately after they had to come from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw in the MTN8 semi-final, first leg, Komphela spoke with a rare coaching honesty as he responded to an observation about his team.

He essentially admitted that Chiefs are still a work in progress.

“It’s only fair to admit that to win a knockout competition you must lessen the number of goals you concede,” Komphela said.

The goal they conceded, a peach of a strike by Celtic debutant Helder Pelembe, was the fourth time the Chiefs defence was breached in two matches in the competition this season.

To get to the semis, Komphela’s team had beaten Maritzburg United 5-3 – the first time since August 2013 that they conceded three goals.

Contrast that with the fact that in the previous campaign they won this season-opening tournament without letting in a single goal and you have every reason to suggest things have taken a turn for the worse since Baxter’s departure.

Komphela showed he knows what the problem is though and will thus be able to solve it.

“We’re not as cohesive as we could be, especially in our central defensive pairings. And the reason for this is that we have made a lot of changes to the pairings because of injuries. I’ve even had (Siyanda) Xulu – a new signing – complaining that he is struggling to settle because we are using him with different partners all the time. But that was forced on us due to injuries to our central defenders.”

In Bloemfontein on Sunday Xulu played with Erick Mathoho who partnered him in the opening league goalless draw at Chippa United. Mathoho himself has just gotten off an injury list that includes the likes of Morgan Gould and Lorenzo Gordinho – who played with Xulu in the Kings Cup in Swaziland.

Komphela has also had to use Ivan Bukenya alongside Xulu – the pairing proving somewhat disastrous as Chiefs leaked three goals against Maritzburg United.

“We must remember that they (the players) are not machines and we must not treat them as such.”

If the defensive problems are largely due to injuries and misunderstanding, up front the issue is long-standing. Even under Baxter, Chiefs did not really have an out-an-out goalgetter with their goals coming from all over the field. Bernard Parker was sometimes used as a shadow striker and even as an outright striker. But the second striker has almost always rotated. And it seems to be the case again under Komphela.