Nabi won’t abandon players in bid to strengthen Chiefs

Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi has urged his side to be ruthless in front of goal after their 1-0 Premier Soccer League defeat to Cape Town City at Cape Town Stadium on Sunday.

The defeat was Chiefs’ fourth of the season from 11 league matches and they remain seventh in the log,  15 points behind log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.

Darwin Gonzalez scored the only goal in the second half to help the Citizens get three points in new head coach and technical director Muhsin Ertugral’s first match in charge. Ertugral was facing the club he made his name at in SA football in two stints with Amakhosi in the 2000s.

Nabi revealed Chiefs are working behind the scenes to improve the team during the transfer window.

“It’s obvious when you look at the squad that we feel there is a need to strengthen the team, but we don’t want to throw our players under the bus by saying they are not good,” Nabi said. 

“No, they are good. Today [Sunday] they are in our squad, they are in our team but every transfer window we will take the opportunity to try to strengthen the team.

“The club is working hard to find the best opportunities possible and we hope everything can improve our squad.”

One of the departments Nabi is desperate to strengthen is the forwards where Chiefs have not been clinical enough. The Tunisian insisted every player also has to show progress in the scoring department.

“We don’t feel the [new] striker can resolve all the issues we have had in the final third,” he said.

“The first thing is for every player to step up, to be more calm when we get into those situations, to make better decisions and make more movement to support the play. The striker can give more opportunities and something more, but he can’t resolve everything.”

Chiefs’ next match is against tricky Stellenbosch FC at FNB Stadium on Wednesday and Nabi wants his side to be ruthless.

“We were creating opportunities [against City] but we lacked good decisions, especially in the last third. It’s been an issue that when we fail to score, we have to create many opportunities. The only thing we can do is go back and work.”