Nabi 'frustrated' as Chiefs give away points against Royal AM

Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi was left fuming and frustrated with how his team collapsed and lost focus after taking an early 2-0 lead only to give it away in the second half against Royal AM at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday.

Victory would have seen Amakhosi climb to third spot on the Betway Premiership log, but after drawing 2-2 they remain in sixth position with 11 points after seven matches.

After leading 2-0 with Ashley du Preez and Wandile Duba's goals scored inside the first 15 minutes, Chiefs then gave away the match after not pressing for more goals despite dominating the entire 45 minutes.

Nabi's team were to rue that lacklustre performance as John Maduka's side replied with two well-taken goals by Ayabulela Maxwele (51st minute) and substitute Levy Mashiane (89th minute) to steal an important away-from-home point.

Nabi was visibly furious after the match, telling reporters he doesn't understand why his charges chose to take their foot off the pedal after gaining an early lead and said the mentality has to change for the club to seal victories.

“I think today it's a lack of professionalism,” said Nabi of his team's performance, especially in the second half. 

“We could have ended the game seven or eight goals up, but we didn't convert the opportunities that we had. Sometimes you don't score because it's a lack of collective (play) and sometimes ego. If you don't respect football, football doesn't respect you.

“We're very, very frustrated, very frustrated with the points that we lost today because we controlled the game from the first minute until the last minute. But that's what happens when you keep the opponents alive.

“Sometimes you can't score but at least when it's two, three or four minutes left, you defend your lead. Even that we couldn't do. It's very hard to understand what happened today.”

Nabi said he warned his players at the break about dropping their game and encouraged them to score more but what happened on the pitch was something else as Royal looked by far a better side and could have won the match if they were clinical in their finish.

“After the 25 minutes of the first half we felt that everyone was playing for himself. It was not acceptable and that's what the talk (at halftime) was about. We were missing a lot of goals and even at halftime that is the speech we gave. We said we can't do that, if we have opportunities to score, we need to score goals.”

It's not the first time Chiefs play the first few minutes of the game and disappear in the second half. The same happened in their slender 2-1 win over Richards Bay at the same venue on Wednesday. Nabi was asked if that trend worries him.

“I think the problem is not tactics, because we controlled 70 to 80% of the game. Like today the opponents started in the second half to play good football but immediately we took control of the game.

“The problem is when you lose too many opportunities, and you give confidence to the opponents. This is happening and we talked about sorting out that problem. The problem is not new, but maybe we need to work more on it on the field.

“We create too many chances, and we control the game, OK, but same mistakes in defence and bad decision-making offensively. We need to find a solution.”

Nabi hopes his players learnt from the mistakes they committed on Saturday and said he would be disappointed if they didn't.

“If the players don't learn from the mistakes of today, I won't understand what the problem is. If they don't give you a reaction after this, it's difficult to continue. We must change the mentality and play football together and not as individuals.

“We need to focus on the next assignment because we're playing the league, and we need responsibility. I won't attack any player, that I will do in the changing room. But together we need to take more responsibility for Kaizer Chiefs.”

Nabi added that the only thing positive about Saturday's match was how they started and the way they controlled the game.

“Any positive? Of course, we controlled the game, and we created too many chances. Sometimes that is not enough without efficiency. Kaizer Chiefs didn't play bad, but we wasted too many opportunities.”

Chiefs will visit Polokwane City at the same Limpopo stadium on Sunday and Nabi hopes by then his charges would have learnt a thing or two from their mistakes.