Zwane – Im Not Going To Kill Siya

Arhur Zwane has come out and defended Siyabonga Ngezana after his costly mistakes against Mamelodi Sundowns, saying he’s not going to “kill” the player.

Ngezana gave away the ball ahead of Masandawana’s opener before also causing the penalty that led to the second goal.

However, Zwane insisted that mistakes are part of the game and explained why he started Ngezana despite the player catching a small knock against Maritzburg.

“If you look at how it happened, it happened early in the game and from there he couldn’t recover,” Zwane said when asked by iDiski Times how Ngezana reacted to his half-time substitution.

“It’s unlike Siya. Siya is one player that in one-vs-one situation he’s one of the best defenders we have. For example the fourth goal, where they play the ball down the line, in those situations Siya usually comes on top.

“Unfortunately he was not himself today. I think because of the knee as well. He actually came to me after the game [against Maritzburg] because remember he couldn’t finish the game, he came to me and said ‘I’m not 100% but I’ll give my best’. I said ‘try and if you can’t we’ll take you out and bring in someone else’.”

Zwane also explained that he didn’t want to break the partnership between Ngezana and Zitha Kwinika, insisting other players will also make mistakes.

“We didn’t want to break that combination between him and Zitha, more especially with the kind of game that we’re coming to play here. Unfortunately he was not himself, he was not at his best and he had to commit and that killed his confidence,” the Chiefs coach added.

“But these things, they do happen in football. I’m not going to kill him because of that. We’ll try and help him to lift his spirit up in training. Many other players are still going to commit such mistakes and we’ll move on. We’ll get better with time, we all make mistakes.

“Even I think the referees made a mistake, they gave Zitha the yellow card, when it wasn’t even his foul. But it’s one of those things, what I’m trying to say is that we’re all human beings, we’re bound to make mistakes. It’s part of the game. We learn from those mistakes and we move on.”

Chiefs next host Richards Bay in a game that was moved to Moses Mabhida Stadium on 20 August.