One season on from demoting coach Arthur Zwane, Kaizer Chiefs have gone backwards. Under Mangethe, Amakhosi secured a fifth-place finish whilst this term has seen an awful finish in tenth place! One wonders whether the Chiefs hierarchy may look back with regret at their rash decision to redeploy Zwane considering this season has been completely wasted with the two coaches they had at the helm. Molefi Ntseki was in his first ever head coach role at the top level, whilst Cavin Johnson was an interim appointment, who one could argue had gone many years since he last excelled in the head coach role. In this feature, we look at whether in hindsight – which is always "20-20" as they say – Chiefs should have held onto their young coach and allowed the three-year project to see out its natural course.
Zwane inherited a mess
When coach Arthur Zwane took the job on a full-time basis, the squad was a bit of a mess. He had seven central defenders to choose from when he walked into office with older players like Mulomowandau Mathoho, Ramahlwe Mphahlele and Daniel Cardoso to move out of the door. Edmilson Dove was signed but the coach clearly didn't see him as anything more than a stopgap, saying: "We had to change Zitha [Kwinika] for Edmilson Dove at centre-back. Dove is a left back but because we wanted that balance of playing and someone who could help with the organisation. We were looking for a left centre back, but we couldn't get one at that time. We had to say let's come up with a plan and move Dove to the left centre back because he got the qualities as well."
Amakhosi had gone many years without real investment into the squad, but Zwane was certainly backed! Ashley Du Preez, Zitha Kwinika and Yusuf Maart cost in the region of R20 million. They say signings can take a year to settle down so it was again a bit unfair on Zwane not to allow him to continue his work with those additions, which were clearly players he had a big say in the club signing. Then, there was the centre-forward issue. With Du Preez injured for the game against Mamelodi Sundowns early in the season, Amakhosi made a bit of a panic signing in Caleb-Bonfils Bimenyimana. He did well initially before Zwane fell out with him (or totally lost faith) and we even saw the Burundi striker celebrate his freedom when leaving Amakhosi.
Zwane spoke about wanting Victor Letsoalo, but Chiefs couldn't get that deal over the line. Aside from personnel issues, he was replacing a coach in Stuart Baxter with a totally different playing style. Remember, Chiefs finished outside the Top Eight in the 2018/19 season and only secured a top eight finish under Gavin Hunt on the final day. Things were a bit rosier under Baxter but there was a fundamental disagreement over playing style between the British coach and his assistants. Overall, Zwane didn't exactly walk into a stable environment.
Zwane's biggest fault
Whilst you can point at league results and continuation of the trophy drought under Arthur Zwane, perhaps the biggest criticism is of his handling of the media! When he first took the reins as caretaker coach for seven matches, he was already telling the assembled press how the players in his squad were not good enough:
"The reality is we know we didn't have players good enough to play for this club. We had players, yes, that could play for this club but not good enough ones. I think we have been nursing some players' feelings for far too long now. So, things have to change."
On an individual level, he was regularly critical of individual members of his squad and never took personal responsibility for any shortcomings in his team. We saw him say of Njabulo Blom: "When it comes to Njabulo, he knows very well that he had a terrible game by his standards". He later potentially damaged the confidence of a youngster by saying of Samkelo Zwane: "Yes, he didn't have a good game, but it wasn't a mistake for us to start with him. Unfortunately for this one, he couldn't come to the party".
Ashley Du Preez was not spared as the coach said the speedy forward didn't understand instructions given to him and then we had the coach making baffling comments in the media about his own job performance, remarking: "Go and check the stats of Kaizer Chiefs' past three seasons then you will see that there's a lot of improvement in this squad compared to the previous squads that we have assembled".
Considering the team ended with one of the worst defensive records and 12 losses, many were left scratching their heads. Maybe a year back in the youth set-up has allowed for reflective practice and the coach is now more ready to deal with the off-field pressures of leading a club and brand as big as Kaizer Chiefs.
A whole new defence came in…
Aside from the above criticisms of individual players, Zwane went even further down that path when he slammed the performances of his defenders. He stated that most of the goals conceded were silly mistakes with the players at fault. He washed his hands of personal fault by saying: "Unfortunately, you look at the goals that we conceded this season, the entire defence let us down. Hence, we started changing."
Zitha Kwinika and Sifiso Hlanti were blamed, in particular, with Zwane saying of the veteran left back: "You could also see with the performance of Hlanti that the pressure was too much because of the age. Unfortunately, we relied on him too much because of his experience, and at some point, we were badly exposed because of that."
What we can take from this is that Zwane wanted to use the transfer window to sign a new centre back pairing and a left back. The club went into the market and acquired Given Msimango and Thatayaone Ditlhokwe. Zwane was unfortunate to be redeployed before he even got to work with those potential upgrades. We can therefore say that both Ntseki and Cavin Johnson had a better defensive unit at their disposal, yet they didn't exactly oversee a consistent defensive record. Zwane was disadvantaged somewhat in comparison to his successors.
"10111" was stronger tactically
Looking back, Zwane was a much more adaptable and forward-thinking coach tactically than either Ntseki or Johnson. He was at least willing to take the risk of using a back three in certain situations, even if it didn't always work out well. Ntseki and Johnson basically used the same back four system in every single match they oversaw with only small adjustments to the midfield area at times.
We don't need to look further than February 2023's win in the Soweto Derby to see evidence of Zwane's tactical nous. He made himself aware of how dangerous Orlando Pirates are in the half-spaces and asked his central midfield two to move into wider areas to block off those pockets. That smart piece of coaching totally nullified Monnapule Saleng and Thembinkosi Lorch. He also tasked Keagan Dolly to do a tactical job on the left to stop Saleng from getting clear space to enjoy. He even took off Siyethemba Sithebe for an extra striker when Pirates went down to 10 men to force the issue and secure the victory.
Make no mistake, Zwane also made some mistakes on a tactical level but at least he was thinking about the strategy deeply and trying to find ways to create mismatches or overloads. As a young coach, he made plenty of mistakes but a year of learning in the deep end meant he had a chance of applying that learning a bit better in the 2023/24 season.
Ox signing highlights the disconnect
Not many things can highlight the disconnect at Chiefs like the signing of Sibongiseni Mthethwa. Whilst the former Stellenbosch man has started to deliver good stats in terms of tackles made and interceptions, he is a destructive midfielder who breaks up play. We know that Zwane didn't enjoy that type of profile in the engine room. He was adamant in his comments about defensive midfielders, saying: "Your number six should be a playmaker. We don't want a number six that will get yellow cards and red cards, we want a ball player because we want to build from the back, we want to play with flair and we want to dominate, we want our people to come and enjoy football."
Just a couple of months after Zwane was demoted as head coach, but still working on the technical team as Ntseki's assistant, we saw the signing of Mthethwa, a profile that Zwane would never have requested. Basically, Ntseki and the Sporting Director, Kaizer Motaung Jr. must have been on a totally different page in how they see midfielders to Mangethe. Zwane largely liked Sithebe as a number eight, Ntseki never used him and then Johnson suddenly selected him as a starter in a deeper role. Your playing style and philosophy often comes from your midfield configuration and none of the four main decision-makers totally agree with each other. That's a red flag!
Zwane summed it up best: "Whoever will come in has to fit into the system and the way of playing because it's pointless for us to try to play the way we want to play – but not getting players who fit into the system. Gone are the days we bring in players to Kaizer Chiefs just because he's a good player, he can be a good player but not for Kaizer Chiefs, so we will go specifically for players who will suit our style of play."
Du Preez and Maart have regressed?
Last season, Du Preez was the marquee signing. His haul of nine goals and five assists with a strike every 298 minutes was a decent return. However, he was expected to kick on this season and really justify the big financial outlay to acquire his services. In this campaign just ended, he netted six goals and added two assists. That's eight goal contributions as opposed to 16 in his first campaign. He netted a goal every 338 minutes of action under Ntseki and Johnson, so we have to say his development has halted. As a 26-year-old, he should be entering his prime years and getting better and better as a player.
We can certainly say that Zwane got a better tune out of the speed merchant. We can also say that Maart, said to cost R5 million from Sekhukhune United, has not been nearly as good as he was in the 2022/23 season. His minutes have decreased from 2,991 played under Zwane to 2,332 in this season just ended. Mangethe got four goals out of Maart, who failed to score in the 2023/24 season. Chiefs' possession numbers have stayed pretty constant around 53% but they've dropped from four shots on target to 3.40 per match since Zwane left. The former coach was getting a bigger contribution from the two big-money signings in the scoring and creation phases, that is without dispute.
