Kaizer Chiefs assistant coach Khalil Ben Youssef has expressed his unhappiness with the criticism directed at club captain Yusuf Maart, who led the side to a first title after a decade of struggle.
Maart is perhaps Chiefs' most criticised player next to goalkeeper Bruce Bvuma. Such was the pressure that the club's technical team opted against playing the latter in the final of the Nedbank Cup at Moses Mabhida on Saturday.
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As for the skipper, he has chosen to do his talking on the field while weathering the social media storm of criticism. It was poetic then that he be the first captain of the side to lead them to silverware in 10 years and, in fact, score the winning goal in a 2-1 win over rivals Orlando Pirates.
This relentless criticism has, however, not gone unnoticed by the club's technical team.
"I just want to take two minutes to say something about our captain Yusuf Maart," Youssef said during an interview with Radio 2000's Game On.
"If it were another player, he would have stopped playing football because the criticism they have made to him here makes no sense.
"I have some friends who are coaches, so they watch the game and ask if it true what is said about the captain. I send his physical performance and I try to ask them, because for me, maybe because I'm close to him, I don't see these mistakes.
"In each game we play, we hear only two things. Change the keeper! Change Maart! You feel like the problem of Kaizer Chiefs is Yusuf Maart and the goalkeeper, and the only two things you hear.
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"I'm not that emotional on the bench. When we score, sometimes I go just to thank them for that. But there were two moments when I started to run. I remember one when we played Golden Arrows.
"Maart was unlucky with a penalty early in the game, and then he scored right after five minutes. Because I had felt what people said about him and so all of us on the bench went to celebrate with him. Then the second occasion was the second goal in this final," said Nasreddine Nabi's right-hand man.
The sweet smell that also comes with the 29-year-old's heroics is that he is a former Pirates player, having come through their junior ranks.
