'He's done very well,' Chiefs' Ntseki says of Petersen amid calls to bench the keeper after blunders

Kaizer Chiefs coach Molefi Ntseki is backing Brandon Petersen as the club's No 1 despite some people blaming the gloveman for some of the goals the club has conceded this season. 

Chiefs will host AmaZulu FC at the FNB Stadium on Saturday in their fourth DStv Premiership match this season, having lost 2-1 against Mamelodi Sundowns and 1-0 to TS Galaxy and drawn 0-0 in the opener against Chippa United.

Petersen has played in all Chiefs' four competitive matches this season, including a 2-1 victory over Cape Town City in the MTN8 where he produced breathtaking saves.

It is, however, the goals Petersen conceded in the 2-1 defeat against Sundowns and in the 1-0 loss against Galaxy that have put him in the spotlight, as it appeared easy to save them but ended up costing Amakhosi six points.

“We've got a good technical team and a good goalkeeping department, with our mentor coach Rainer [Dinkelacker]. I think those [mistakes by Petersen] were mental issues, because when you look at his ability as a goalkeeper, he's done very well for the team, even in the past few games,” said Ntseki. 

“It's not only him [Petersen] who makes mistakes that led us to lose the games. It's the whole team, because if you look, it's a series of mistakes that led to him making the last mistake.”

Ntseki said he had a duty to back his goalkeeper, especially amid calls to dump him. 

“He's been in the game for some time and as coaches we need to be there for the player. This is what we're doing to help him understand that mistakes like these will always be costly, but these are the mistakes we all have to eliminate in our game.”

Petersen has competition in Itumeleng Khune, Bruce Bvuma and Karabo Molefe, but Ntseki was non-committal about changing Petersen in goals in the game against AmaZulu.

“Something important is we have four goalkeepers and all are competing for the first position,” he said.

“When one makes a mistake you don't just make changes without zooming into the problem and helping out with the problem, because you might make changes emotionally but what if the next player makes the same mistakes?

“So, what is important is we're a professional team and we're also treating our players as professionals.”

AmaZulu beat Chiefs 4-0 in Durban in January when they last met in the league last season, but have started this campaign with three goalless draws under new Spanish coach Pablo Franco Martin.

Chiefs' last victory in the league was on April 27 (last season) when they beat Chippa 1-0. Amakhosi lost their last three league matches last season against Moroka Swallows (2-1), SuperSport United (1-0) and Cape Town City (1-0).

In 19 league games this year Amakhosi have lost 10, won six and drawn three — a terrible record for a team gunning to win their first league title since 2015.