With Kaizer Chiefs having lost their eighth game of the season already, are there positives to take from their showing this season? Sporting Director Kaizer Motaung Jr answers.
Motaung Jr has singled out their youth project as one of their successes, given that teenage forward Mduduzi Shabalala is beginning to hold a place with aplomb in the first team.
Shabalala was used sparingly in the first round of the season, as he was still doing matric and had a different programme compared to the first team.
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However, since the turn of the new year, 'Mdu or Die' has been featuring prominently in Arthur Zwane's line-up and scored his second goal of the season in a 3-2 loss to Golden Arrows this past Sunday.
"It's not a good situation to be in but at the same time there has been positives, we're sitting here with a young Mduduzi Shabalala who is 18 and just scored (against Golden Arrows) his second goal of the season," Motaung Jr told journalists at the Soweto Derby press conference.
"An immense talent, it speaks to a lot of plans and preparations from our academy and how we plan to integrate into the first team.
"A lot of positives, we've gone back to our culture, we're integrating our youth. That's a massive component for us and something that we're going to continue to do moving forward," he said.
The former Amakhosi striker also went on to say that the team's brand of football has improved, where they are now on the ball and attacking more, something that has been overlooked because of negative results.
"Secondly, not enough has been said about the brand of football that we play. Yes, there have been games where, in any situation... Man City lost to Southampton, a team that is at the bottom of the log," Motaung Jr continued.
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"So for me, it's a case of we need to be objective and if we're looking at the current football we're playing, there has been a massive improvement.
"We're on the ball, we're attacking and that's the kind of style we've planned to play for and as I said, the youth project is close to our hearts and is bearing fruits with Mduduzi at a mere 18-years old," he added.
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