Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has offered his assessment on the new-look Kaizer Chiefs squad ahead of their DStv Premiership fixture on Wednesday.
The league champions face off against Amakhosi on Wednesday afternoon at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium in what represents the most high-profile match of the season thus far which is expected to be sold out.
And in Chiefs, they face a side who are wounded after amassing a record 13 defeats in 30 games last season but with major changes in their playing personnel and new head coach Molefi Ntseki, they may offer something different than the 4-0 drubbing handed to them at Loftus last season in the first-round.
“The starting point is that we have to respect every team, we have to respect all our opponents and Kaizer Chiefs is no different,” Mokwena said when asked about their changes in pre-season.
“You know the rivalry between Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs and already that makes it a big encounter.”
With two games of their pre-season televised and the 0-0 draw with Chippa United yielding no goals for their fans as of yet, there have been murmurs of discontent brewing from some sections of supporters.
But Mokwena feels there’s a lot they can work with this season, with tactical flexibility, improved squad and more notably there’s defensive structure due to the arrivals of Given Msimango and Thatayaone Ditlhokwe from TS Galaxy and SuperSport United respectively.
“The performances of the team? You have to gauge in relation to some of the changes that have been made from a technical perspective, a new coach, he needs time to work on his ideas and get the players to adapt to a different way of doing things,” he continued.
“It’s a little bit clear, even though it doesn’t move too far away from the 4-2-3-1 they deployed [last season], but there are moments where it’s a little bit more aggressive of a 4-3-3 and the front-three is a little bit more in the advanced line than the previous season under coach Arthur [Zwane].”
“[There changes] also shows with the profile, you have Ranga [Chivaviro] you have possibilities of Saile who’s a striker, but plays there, Ashely du Preez plays up front and then you have a front-three that really in the profile of makeup is strikers in the front line.
“Still with a midfield two at the base where they play around [with options], Castillo, Zwane – or Castillo, Sithebe, or Yusuf Maart – so they have that and then to give possibilities for 10, and they’ve tried different players.
“Mdantsane has been tried inside and outside, Potsane tries inside and outside in the friendlies and they have Ngcobo and Shabalala interchanging positions, so it gives them a possibility of a second striker and depending on the profile of the second striker, it’s either a central midfielder who collapses closer to the six and eights, or a 10 that’s closer to the number nine.
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“But you still have very aggressive full-backs in Hlanti and Reeve Frosler, so you know those possibilities of final third entries, crosses into the box, where they are aggressive with that and for sure maybe the biggest improvement, against Chippa you saw two or three very good actions where they went on the sides.
“But the two centre-backs give them a lot of stability this year, where they are a lot stronger in defending the box with Dithlokwe and Msimango, so that shows a big improvement on their side but big respect to them.
“From a physical profile, they have got enough to hurt you, both in open play and on set pieces – so yeah, we have to understand, it’s a team in the process of improving itself and it does seem to me, qualitatively they’ve improved a lot.”
The two sides meet on Wednesday afternoon at 15h00.
