Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane has come to the defence of Njabulo Blom after his error led to a goal against Stellenbosch.
Chiefs came from behind to beat Stellies 3-1 courtesy of a hat-trick of penalties by striker Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana. However, Amakhosi's tendency to concede cheap goals continued, as they initially went behind after Blom gave the ball away trying to play from the back and they were punished by Nhlanhla Mgaga, who pressed him and fired home a low striker past goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune.
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'10111' says although Edmilson Dove has improved the side with his qualities as a left-footed player and ability on the ball, he still has room for improvement when it comes to his decision making.
"If you look at how he plays, he gives us that balance at the back, he's very calm on the ball, yes at some point he'll make wrong decisions," Zwane told journalists in a press conference after the game.
Zwane explained that the problem was not with Blom giving the ball away but Dove should not have passed to the 22-year old in the centre of the park.
"Because it's part of the game, like the mistake that led to the goal, I don't think he should have played the ball to Njabulo because he was in the middle. We saw that they were waiting for those moments in terms of pressing traps and because they tried several times and they were not successful," he said.
"Actually they had another one that they were successful but we recovered quickly and we should have learned from the first one. Like I said players we allow them to use their own discretion on the ball and learn from these mistakes so that they can believe in themselves more and going forward he knows he could have done better," he went on.
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"But I'm happy for him because he's giving us that balance like I said and he's comfortable on the ball. We don't like giving the ball away cheaply and for the fact that we're building that culture now, it's gonna take us some time.
"We're still going to make a lot of mistakes and we can only learn from those mistakes. What is key is how we come back from that set-back and that's what I'm happy about."
Dove seems to be on the right path at his new club after he won two successive Man of the Match awards against Swallows and Stellenbosch.
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