Kaizer Chiefs will depart for their pre-season camp in the Netherlands with Nasreddine Nabi faced with an all-round task of fixing the club’s scattered on-field issues.
Chiefs’ season will start in the Betway Premiership on the weekend of August 8 after they failed to qualify for the MTN8 for the second season in a row.
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The MTN8 will set the new season in motion on August 1.
This then means Amakhosi now have just over five weeks to get their house in order before official action starts, with the transfer window then set to close in September.
Nabi’s job for the new season will be making sure that he dilutes the building chorus that sang as his anthem last term as the side became easy prey in the league.
So vulnerable were the Soweto giants last season that they suffered defeat in 43% of the Betway Premiership games that they played.
Considering last season’s stretch was only 28 league games, this (12 defeats) was the worst season in terms of defeats throughout the club’s PSL history.
What is paining for the men in Gold and Black is that they have now lost 12 matches in the league for three seasons in a row, while they suffered another 19 defeats in the two seasons prior.
Lacking resistance has been a developing problem for the club, which Nabi now needs to fix from his goalkeeping department through to the defence, midfield, and attack.
For three years in a row, the Naturena-based outfit has conceded more than they have scored in the league.
This had only happened once in the first 26 seasons of the PSL era.
The consequence of all these issues has been that Chiefs have not been able to gather even half of the points available to play for in the league.
Last season was so bad they only managed 32 out of 84.
This was below 40% of the points total to play for.
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To avoid his team remaining fragile, Nabi now needs to make firm decisions about his goalkeeping department, which has Bruce Bvuma, Brandon Petersen, and Fiacre Ntwari in the top order with Bontle Molefe and Takalani Mazhamba supporting.
The central defence is settled, so there have been no signings made there.
At left-back, Nkanyiso Shinga is the latest arrival following the departure of Edmilson Dove and Bongani Sam.
Ethan Chislett has led the midfield signings, while Flavio Silva has been brought in up front.
Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
