Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane has discussed the differences between his side and Orlando Pirates this season after both Soweto giants went into the new campaign with new coaches.
Zwane is once again facing the scrutiny from Amakhosi faithful after Saturday’s Nedbank Cup exit in the Soweto Derby and will finish his first season without silverware.
It brings Chiefs’ trophy drought to eight campaigns, despite a lot of hype when Zwane was initially appointed. Meanwhile, Pirates also made a coaching switch ahead of the 2022/23 and Spaniard Jose Riveiro has booked his second domestic cup final in his debut campaign.
‘10111’, though, insisted that Pirates had less of a squad revamp and Chiefs’ injuries have hampered their progress this campaign.
“The only difference when it comes to that [comparisons with Pirates] is us bringing in new players. They needed to gel. Us also working on our chemistry, understanding,” he argued.
“When you look at Pirates how many players that they brought in this season and already they had a core. With us, we didn’t have a core. We had to start afresh.
“When you look at most of the players that were part and parcel of the team this season, some of them did not play.
“Take into consideration that most of our players that were key players – for me very key players that could’ve played a key role, even in today’s game and many other games that we ended up losing, they were out, out injured.
“Those who were given the opportunity, they gave their best but it wasn’t to be. That’s the difference – we had a lot of injuries to key players, we had to chop and change, at some points we played with a makeshift defence, just to make sure that we just consolidate and not drop more points. At some point we did drop points that we shouldn’t have.
“As I said it was the most difficult reason in terms of injuries, challenges that we came across in making sure that we had that consistency in the squad.”
WHY DO YOU THINK RIVEIRO HAS HAD MORE SUCESS THAN ZWANE?
