Irate Chiefs coach defends team changes amid criticism

Kaizer Chiefs co-coach Khalil Ben Youssef has vehemently dismissed the notion that their failure to have a consistent starting XI indicates they are still experimenting.

Chiefs have barely fielded the same line-up in two consecutive games this season, prompting some to criticise Ben Youssef and co-coach Cedric Kaze for failing to establish their best XI about 18 months into the job. The pair initially served as assistants to Nasreddine Nabi, who was let go a few games into this campaign.

Their 0-0 draw with eighth-placed TS Galaxy at Mbombela Stadium on Sunday meant Amakhosi ended the year in fourth place on 24 points from six wins, six draws and a lone defeat from 13 games, four points behind leaders Orlando Pirates (28 from 12).

“Aden McCarthy [who’s struggled to return to the starting XI despite starting the first few games of the season] has been out because he got injured, and then if a player who took his position is performing well, what should we do?

“We have a big squad, we have to manage the workload of the players,” Ben Youssef angrily replied when asked whether Chiefs’ coaches are still experimenting.

“You [the questioner] are not with us at training, you can’t know why we make changes. To say it’s experimenting is wrong. We are not experimenting because we have been here for more than a season and we know all the players.

“We know which team we have to choose, we know what we are doing and we are not here to make experiments.”

Chiefs missed the opportunity to end the year neck-and-neck with second-placed Mamelodi Sundowns (26 points, 13 games).

Ben Youssef hailed their display against Galaxy, bemoaning Chiefs’ bad luck in officiating decisions.

“I think we played one of our best games this season. I am so proud of the players. We dominated the game from start to finish. We created a lot of situations to score but even when we scored, we were unlucky with the wrong decision that our goal was ruled offside. We were also denied a clear penalty.”

Flavio Silva had the ball in the net only for the goal to be incorrectly ruled offside by the assistant referee on the right flank, while referee Skhumbuzo Gasa also did not award Amakhosi what appeared a clear penalty when Galaxy’s Khulumani Ndamane fouled Mfundo Vilakazi in the box in the first half.