‘We tried to match Sundowns pound for pound’: Chiefs coach Zwane

Kaizer Chiefs tried to match Mamelodi Sundowns “pound for pound”, but the confidence of his new-look combination let them down in their 4-0 defeat to the DStv Premiership champions at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, says Amakhosi coach Arthur Zwane. 

Zwane had to search for answers on his side’s performance, especially after they showed some promise in their first two league matches, in particular their 3-0 home win over Maritzburg United on Tuesday.

“To be honest I have no idea why the players didn’t come to the party — they were flat,” said Zwane after Saturday’s record defeat to Sundowns.

“Even if we had scored the two goals, if Reeve [Frosler] converted that opportunity [in the second half] and we scored a penalty [Khama Billiat missed in the second half], chances are we were still going to lose the game when you look at our boys.

“I think Sundowns were just on top of us in terms of the quality they have. We all know they have quality, but with us it’s a work in progress. We’ll get there; it might take some time, but we’ll definitely compete at some point.”

Zwane insisted Chiefs did not want to let Sundowns play, as they liked attacking Amakhosi on the break.

“Building up to this game, obviously you’re playing against a team that has so many qualities. They’ve been together for some time and they have a way of playing that gives them that advantage,” the coach said.

“You can see they’re bullies in the middle of the park and they have players who are very comfortable on the ball. So we had to try to match them pound for pound because to say to the players, ‘Listen, this team is top, gents, we have to sit’, was never going to work for us.

“There was no way we were going to sit. If we were going to sit we were inviting trouble and we were going to get tired. As you could see our midfielders, [Siyethemba] Sithebe was flat; Yusuf [Maart] was flat; Cole [Alexander] was flat.

“That’s why I don’t blame the players and maybe we can say it’s because of the game we played [against Maritzburg] on Tuesday. They gave their all, and coming to this one, mentally they were still tired.

“We tried by all means to avoid [team] meetings and just said to the player, ‘Go and relax and come focus on the tactics and the game approach and we’ll take it from there.’ We tried to not overload the players with information.

“Also when Ashley du Preez started training [on Friday] he gave us that hope. But he had to pull out [because of injury] and we had to restructure the team in terms of who was going go play forward.

“Now we tried to say, 'OK, just to keep the pace up front let’s start with [Dillan] Solomons because he was once a winger — actually naturally he’s a winger. So we said let’s put him in position '10' and also give ourselves that width and speed because we wanted to keep that pace going forward.

“The only time you can pose a threat to the Sundowns defence was if we had players — three of our players — who have that combination of break attacks going forward. But it wasn’t to be, and as I said, we learnt a lot from this game and we’ll move on and get better with time.”

Chiefs, who have now lost two of their first three league matches, face newcomers and early log leaders Richards Bay at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday (8pm).