Kaizer Chiefs co-coach Khalil Ben Youssef has vehemently dismissed the notion that their failure to have a consistent starting XI means they were still experimenting.
Chiefs have hardly maintained the same line-up for two successive games this season, prompting some to criticise Ben Youssef and his co-coach Cedric Kaze for failing to establish their best XI some 18 months into the job, having initially served as assistants to Nasreddine Nabi, who was let go a few games into this campaign.
“Aden McCarthy [who’s struggled to return to the starting XI despite starting the first few games of the season] has been out because he got injured, and then if a player who took his position is performing well, what should we do? We have a big squad... we have to manage the workload of the players,” Ben Youssef angrily replied when asked about constant tinkering in the lineup.
We have a large squad and are managing player workloads. It’s incorrect to say we’re experimenting; we know our players and what we’re doing.
— Khalil Ben Youssef, Kaizer Chiefs co-coach
“You [referring to a journalist who asked whether they were still experimenting] are not with us at training; you can’t know why we make changes.
“To say it’s experimenting is wrong. We are not experimenting because we have been here for more than a season, and we know all the players. We know which team we have to choose... we know what we are doing, and we are not here to make experiments.”
Chiefs missed the opportunity to end the year neck-and-neck with second-placed Mamelodi Sundowns, when they were held to a dramatic goalless draw by TS Galaxy at Mbombela Stadium on Sunday.
Ben Youssef hailed their display against Galaxy as “one of their best” thus far this season, bemoaning the bad luck as far as the referee’s decisions were concerned.
“I think we played one of our best games this season. I am so proud of the players. We dominated the game from start to finish... we created a lot of situations to score, but even when we scored, we were unlucky with the wrong decision that our goal was ruled offside. We were also denied a clear penalty,” Ben Youssef said.
Flavio Silva scored a goal, but it was incorrectly ruled offside by the assistant referee on the right flank, while referee Skhumbuzo Gasa also didn’t award Amakhosi what looked like a clear penalty when Galaxy’s Khulumani Ndamane fouled Mfundo Vilakazi inside the box in the first half.
Sowetan
