Kaizer Chiefs head coach Nasreddine Nabi Despite a good start to the season under new head coach Nasreddine Nabi, Kaizer Chiefs have struggled for results lately, putting pressure on the Tunisian tactician.
Image: Itumeleng English/Independent Media
It didn't take long for the opinion to start turning against Kaizer Chiefs' head coach Nasreddine Nabi.
According to reports earlier this week, club officials were at loggerheads over whether or not to keep going with Nabi's project to make Chiefs great again.
So far, things have not been going great for the once mighty Amakhosi. The club are sixth in the league having picked up just 18 points from their 13 games. That's not good enough. In their last eight games in the league, they've won just three times.
And in games where they should have picked up maximum points, they walked away with nothing. Who can forget their draw against Royal AM in late November where they let a two-goal advantage slip? It's not been good enough. If the reports are true that some club officials are thinking about pulling the plug, it's understandable why they'd want to.
Sure, there have been improvements in the team's play. They create more chances, and are generally more menacing when going forward than they have been in a long time, but their ability to put the ball in the back of the net has held them back.
Nabi has acknowledged this whenever they've failed to win games. But by the looks of it, not enough has been done on the training field to address the wastefulness in front of goal. Game after game, the team create significantly more chances than the opposition, yet they don't always end up on the winning side.
And there's the messy situation with Gaston Sirino where the player is reportedly refusing to take part in training.
When the Uruguayan is on the park, Chiefs are a different team. He makes everyone around him tick, and can influence how games turn out. And this was clearly evident earlier in the season, when driven by Sirino, Chiefs played AmaZulu off the park in Durban and won 3-1. The South American had a hand in all three goals.
His influence has been non-existent since, and if reports are true, it suggests Nabi is struggling to rein in his players and get them all on the same page.
And now, there's talk that club bosses are about to hand Nabi a blank chequebook in order to sign new players. Before doing that, Kaizer Motaung Jr needs to assess the players signed before the season kicked off. Have they been good enough? Have they improved the club? Will the new players be any different?
Chiefs fans were right to be excited when Nabi came in. He's a top coach who has managed to turn things around at his previous clubs. But at Chiefs, he's struggled to prove that he's the right fit for the club.
If the club decided to call time on his tenure, not many fans would object.
IOL Sport
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