Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane has come out and defended Siyabonga Ngezana after his mistakes against Mamelodi Sundowns and explained his substitution against Richards Bay.
Ngezana made two costly mistakes in the previous match against Sundowns when Zwane took him off at half-time, but the Chiefs coach had already said after the match that he’s not “going to kill” his player.
Ngezana started Saturday’s match on the bench but came on in the second half to help his side defend their tender lead with 10 men – with Zwane praising him for adding stability to the Amakhosi defence.
“Football taught me something, it’s how you come back after a setback,” he said after the match.
“If Siya is not given the opportunity, he’s never going to grow as a player. As I said earlier on, football is a game of mistakes. Some of the mistakes are going to be critical or they happen at the wrong time, just like it happened.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t recover, but it’s part of learning for him.
“He actually, when he went in, let alone the yellow card, he brought in some stability at the back as well because we had to now play with three and push the full-backs and wait for the right moment for them to come at us, so that we can get the spaces behind because we were playing with one man down and the energy levels were dropping.
“I think adding Siya gave as that stability. I understand our supporters, sometimes they feel a little insecure because of the previous performance but it’s part of the game and his confidence will grow.”
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Zwane also explained that overall, Ngezana has been one of Chiefs best players this season, but his Chiefs will make mistakes while they are in their rebuilding phase.
“Even our supporters will start believing in him as well,” he added.
“He’s been one of our top defenders, especially the games that we’ve played this season against Royal AM and against Maritzburg at home, except for the two mistakes that he made against Sundowns, unfortunately those two mistakes were costly.
“It doesn’t mean that he’s a bad player over night and we’re building a team here that’s still going to make a lot of mistakes, because it’s a work in progress.
“But as soon as this machine is running like a well-oiled machine, I don’t it’s going to be easy for any team that comes out, especially when we’re hosting them.”
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