Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane has revealed a massive progress they have made in one area compared to last season.
Chiefs have been inconsistent this season and only started to get their winning rhythm in the last month or so after winning five games in a row in all competitions before their 1-1 draw against Marumo Gallants.
One of the in-form players Ashley Du Preez scored his eighth goal of the season in all competitions for Amakhosi in their draw against Gallants and Zwane used him as an example of the progress they are making in improving players.
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Zwane revealed that Du Preez could only finish one or two games out of 27 matches he played last season but they have worked on his conditioning and game intelligence and they are now seeing the results of him playing consecutive 90 minutes and scoring goals.
"If you can check now, 'Ash' is playing 90 minutes, if you can go back to last season, I think 'Ash' played 27 games if I'm not mistaken and in all those 27 games he only played one 90 minutes, if not two," Zwane said in a press conference.
"So all the other games he was substituted, you understand? So that alone tells you the role that we're playing in making him a better player and improving him as an individual and he has adapted very well.
"I'm proud of him that he's always now of late on the scoresheet," he said.
There has been concerns, however, that Chiefs seem to lack structure when building from the back after Edmilson Dove gave the ball away cheaply in that zone and that led to them conceding the equaliser.
Goalkeeper Brandon Petersen also had limited options against Gallants when trying to start play from the back and Mangethe' also addressed the issue.
'10111' says they know what they are doing and his players started to relax after getting an early lead, as building from the back is not just about defenders and the goalkeeper.
"When we prepare to build up from the back we know what we're doing and we know why we're doing that. But as I said, we score a goal and we stop moving," Zwane said.
"Now we're relying on two players to make those movements instead of everyone should free himself to make sure that we come out of tight situation.
"Because we don't want to pump the ball, we have players like Ash, Keagan (Dolly), Christian (Saile), they are not good in terms of holding the ball, we don't want them to fight for the ball," he went on.
"We want our midfielders to feed them because we have good midfielders who can be able to pin point (passes) especially when they are on a run," he concluded.
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