Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane says he is not panicking after they lost 4-0 to Mamelodi Sundowns at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday.
Zwane admitted his side still had a lot of work to do but said he was optimistic they would be competitive this season despite the setback in Tshwane.
Chiefs headed to Loftus on the back of an outstanding performance against Maritzburg United (3-0 win), but could not replicate that against Sundowns.
A brace from Peter Shalulile and a goal each from Gaston Sirino and new signing Abubeker Nasir gave Sundowns a comfortable victory and humiliated their rivals. The two opening goals were errors from Siyabonga Ngezana, who had a game to forget.
“Sometimes this happens to the best teams in the world and with us, obviously, at the moment we are still trying to get the combinations right and bringing in new players,” Zwane said. “You can see by the way we exerted ourselves, we still have a long way to go as I have alluded to in the past.
“But it was good that we were exposed like this and now it points to one thing in terms of the players. It is early in the season. We can still pick up, get better, learn from this game and move on.”
It’s a work in progress. We will get there. It may take some time, but we will definitely compete at some point. We will look where we can improve individually and collectively as a team.
— Arthur Zwane, Kaizer Chiefs head coach
Zwane said there would be introspection and he hoped the defeat would be a huge lesson for his players.
“It’s a work in progress. We will get there. It may take some time, but we will definitely compete at some point,” he said. “We will look at where we can improve individually and collectively as a team. And we will get it right. We will make corrections because this was a game of mistakes and we can only learn from them.
“We will get it right, I don’t panic. It’s part of the game we will take the positives and the negatives and move on.
“We don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where we will be beaten 4-0. We love to do that to other teams. It’s just a setback we don’t have to worry about.”
Chiefs will look to bounce back to winning ways when they host Richards Bay at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday at 8pm.
Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena is excited about the return of Bongani Zungu to the club and said his arrival would make the competition in the midfield even stronger. Zungu, who returned to Sundowns for the second time, was announced in front of the sold-out match against Chiefs.
The 29-year-old had been without a club since he parted ways with French side Amiens SC in July.
“I want to congratulate the club and the management for a lot of hard work behind the scenes,” Mokwena said after Saturday’s match. “It was a complicated deal and it took very long. Lots of issues and also want to thank Bongani for his patience and trust because he had other offers.”
