With Kaizer Chiefs struggling with their introduction of youngsters, Orlando Pirates legend Happy Jele has suggested where they got it wrong.
New head coach Nasreddine Nabi has thrown Chiefs youngsters such as Mduduzi Shabalala, Wandile Duba, Mfundo Vilakazi and Samkelo Zwane in at the deep end.
Although Amakhosi youngsters have shown a lot of potential, Nabi has been criticized for playing too many of them at once, especially after they were exposed in a 4-0 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns in the Carling Knockout quarter-finals.
With Pirates young forward Relebohile Mofokeng performing at his peak and best for the Buccaneers, who have won all their seven league games, there will always be comparisons with his peers at rival club the Glamour Boys.
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According to Jele, the reason why Chiefs youngsters are not consistent like Mofokeng is because they put a lot of pressure on them too early.
"I think they [Chiefs] introduced youngsters too early and not at the right time. If you look at Pirates, when they introduced Mofokeng, there were a lot of senior players [around him]," Jele said on Smash Sports YouTube Channel.
"[Mohau] Nkota now, there's a lot of senior players. Mofokeng is in his third season and if you look at the first season, he didn't play that much, he was playing 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. The introduction was [gradual].
"The second season, he started to start matches, 45 minutes, 60 minutes and then 90 minutes, that's the introduction they did, which is brilliant. The senior players need to cover the youngsters, you must not put pressure on youngsters and say, 'You need to do the work'.
"Senior players have to cover the youngsters, so he can express himself. Rele can now take the responsibility a little bit because there's senior players who will say, 'Do 30 percent and we'll do the rest'," the former Pirates skipper added.
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Chiefs also gave youngster Nkosana Mbuthu his debut in a high profile pre-season friendly against Young Africans in the starting line-up but he was exposed in a 4-0 loss and has not featured since then.
