After the disaster of last season, losing a dirty dozen matches in the DStv Premiership, Kaizer Chiefs decided that the task was too big right now for Arthur Zwane. Without doubt, former Young Africans head coach Nasreddine Nabi was the first choice to take over. The Tunisian entered into talks with the club's hierarchy and looked set to take the job before a Sunday newspaper interview confirming that fact seemed to upset Amakhosi. After the two parties failed to sing from the same hymnbook regarding the entire make-up of Nabi's technical team, the deal fell through. The Soweto giants then moved to quickly appoint Molefi Ntseki in the role of head coach for the upcoming season. It is a move nobody saw coming and it has left many scratching their heads, even despite the 53-year-old's experience that includes a stint at Bloemfontein Celtic. In this feature, Soccer Laduma looks at some of the pros and cons of the move and what Ntseki's Bafana Bafana rein can tell us.
No top-flight experience
Con:
There can be no doubt that this is a concerning fact. Molefi Ntseki has most often worked in youth development and his official title upon being appointed at Naturena in May 2021 was as Head of Technical and Youth Development for the Academy. That role usually entails overseeing the academy coaches to ensure they are utilising the correct training methods whilst also implementing an overall playing style within the youth ranks. Going from that sort of largely off-field role to be in charge of the first team will be a big change. Even in his role as Bafana Bafana head coach, he would have had very few contact hours will the players. He will now be in a full-time first team club role for the first time in many years.
Pro:
It is a stretch to see how this can be a positive for Kaizer Chiefs. At least they haven't appointed one of the 'revolving door' or 'recycled' topflight local coaches and have someone with no baggage. Also, very few opponents will have any sort of idea of Ntseki's preferred tactics and playing style and that could mean the Glamour Boys are a surprise package in the early weeks of the season. The other vague pro is that his ability to be a delegator and overseer could mean he empowers his two assistant coaches to improve themselves whilst not having the pressure of media duties or ultimate responsibility for results. Whereas Arthur Zwane was a frustrated assistant coach under both Gavin Hunt and Stuart Baxter due to a disconnect in preferred playing style, that shouldn't exist if Ntseki allows "10111" to be hands-on during training sessions. The head coach will also be much more diplomatic in interviews than his predecessor, who tended to throw his players under the bus!
He was already on Chiefs' books
Con:
The biggest negative about this is that Ntseki is hardly going to overhaul anything within the club. He is going to continue with the same way the Naturena-based outfit has been working over the last 12 months and that means that many of the issues in recruitment, training methods, injuries, general standards and expectations and accountability internally won't change. The fact that he won't pull up any trees or be controversial in interviews means the board won't face public criticism. This may also mean that the players get an easy ride and never face blame for their part in any defeats.
Pro:
The biggest benefits here are two-fold. The first is that Ntseki already had a contract with the club and he is almost certainly a much, much cheaper option than Nasreddine Nabi. It is not clear whether he has even signed a new contract or whether he is serving the final year of the three-year deal he initially penned when joining Amakhosi in 2021. As with his appointment as coach of Bafana, when SAFA were unwilling to pay the salaries of candidates like Herve Renard or Carlos Queiroz, the highly-qualified local coach is the cost-effective option. The other benefit to Chiefs is on the recruitment front. Despite the uncertainty over who would be in charge, the club has gone out and signed all of Given Msimango, Pule Mmodi, Ranga Chivaviro, Mduduzi Mdantsane, Thatayaone Ditlhokwe and Edson Castillo. Whilst a couple of those were free agents, the others have come with transfer fees attached. There is no guarantee that Nabi would have rated those signings as none would have been with his backing. With Ntseki at the helm, the Soweto giants know he will use the new recruits and therefore extract value out of Chiefs' investments.
Are Chiefs putting Zwane above the club?
If you consider that the club was reportedly not willing to appoint Nabi without Zwane attached as part of the technical team (whilst they also wanted to retain conditioning coach Muzi Maluleke), it is clear that they have a lot of belief in "Mangethe". They may not think he is ready to be the main man right now though, or they simply bowed to fan pressure after the angry and violent scenes towards the coach in Rustenburg in May. Either way, they are not giving up on him.
Almost no foreign coach and most local ones would not have accepted having Zwane on their technical team. They would have feared he had designs of returning to the hotseat and wouldn't be a supportive member of the coaching staff. Those allegations were already levelled at him when he was working under Baxter. The latter said after his departure, "I realised even before then that there were agendas within the club. Those agendas were going to be satisfied whether I liked it or not, there were going to be things going on in the background, possibly not what I thought was the correct decision, but it was going to be done."
Zwane himself addresses the insinuations by saying, "If he can elaborate how we backstabbed him. We thought we were working with someone who we can learn from... someone that'll be our mentor. If he wants us to challenge him head-on, then we'll do it because they come here and disrespect us and expect us to keep quiet. His son (Lee) backstabbed him, not us."
Ntseki is simply grateful for the opportunity handed to him and is in no position to make demands or requests. In effect, Chiefs prioritised the coaching career of Zwane ahead of getting the best candidate to bring success to the first team on the field. Considering they never did the same for Doctor Khumalo, arguably an even bigger club legend than Zwane, it's a puzzling stance to take. They must feel sure that the former winger will one day be the man to lead them back to the glory days.
Pro: Bigger technical team
One positive aspect ahead of the new season is that the technical is bigger than before. Whilst both Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates enjoyed two assistant coaches last season (and long before that, too), Chiefs have almost never had that set-up. Zwane was left with just Dillon Sheppard to assist him when another assistant would have added value. Ernst Middendorp was left with just Shaun Bartlett despite wanting to add Maahier Davids to his technical team.
As far back as June 2019, Bartlett told journalists, "The management is looking into that particular need as far as beefing up is concerned and how we can improve it. We have heard so many coaches, even Pitso (Mosimane) said he wants to thank the 14 people around him. We don't want 14 people, we just want people to make sure that we can get them in the right positions, assist where it's necessary and then obviously get the players to the level that's needed. But that is a decision that will be made by management. As far as I know, it is something that has been put forward."
The move for Davids to join from Bucs fell through and Amakhosi went into the 2019/20 season with just one assistant coach. At least Ntseki's promotion to the head coach role has seen both Zwane and Sheppard stay in the set-up to give the side two assistant coaches at long last.
The technical team has been further strengthened with the return of Rainer Dinkelacker as a "Strategic Advisor" in the goalkeeping department. We know that current goalkeeper coach Aubrey Mathibe is relatively inexperienced and having a mentor will be of benefit. The German helped produced talents such as Brian Baloyi, Rowen Fernandez, Itumeleng Khune and the late Arthur Bartman. He will be important for Khune's transition into more of a coaching role too. Even if many aren't convinced about the head coach in isolation, the technical team as a whole has been expanded and strengthened.
What Ntseki's nine Bafana matches tell us
Without much head coach experi-ence and very little of it as club level in the last 20 years, we have to look at Ntseki's rein as national team head coach. What do those paltry nine matches in charge tell us about his preferred formation, what sort of profiles he likes and which players could he lean heavily on?
The first thing we see is that the coach didn't rock the boat with his squad selections. He largely stuck with the experienced core favoured by Baxter for the 2019 Afcon, where Ntseki was the assistant coach. He recalled a few older players like Erick Mathoho, and Keagan Dolly was back in the picture after missing the Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
Tactically, he used two shapes most often, a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3. In the former shape, Thulani Serero was usually the number 10, but he dropped out for an extra specialist central midfielder in certain tougher matches, such as the 2-0 loss away to Ghana where Thato Mokeke was a surprise selection. Those preferences in terms of team shape mirror what we saw from Mangethe last season: it was usually a 4-2-3-1, but he went for all of Samkelo Zwane, Yusuf Maart and Siyethemba Sithebe in certain matches too. After all, Zwane was Ntseki's assistant with the national team. They seem to think alike.
In terms of current Chiefs players who the coach regularly selected, Dolly was a major one. He had a more prominent role than under many of the previous coaches, but it was usually down the left wing where he isn't as effective. Sithebe was handed his international debut by Ntseki, playing in two friendlies and twice being an unused substitute in Afcon qualifiers against Sao Tome Principe. That bodes well for the energetic midfielder's prospects of regular minutes next season.
Sifiso Hlanti was another current Amakhosi player who had the complete faith of Ntseki, so perhaps that has played some part in the veteran renewing his contact at the Naturena- based club. There were also some quite puzzling selections though, not least handing a debut to 30-year-old Gladwin Shitolo and the surprise decision to start 32-year-old Ruzaigh Gamildien as the number nine in a key qualifier against Ghana. That came a full eight years after his international debut and was purely down to a short-lived hot scoring streak for Swallows FC.
In fact, a 1-1 draw against the Black Stars at home was the one match where Ntseki drastically changed formation. He went to a back five with two defensive midfielders and found himself taking heavy criticism from the media. When asked about his choice to start seven naturally defensive players, he said, "I think, if you're talking of seven (defenders), I don't know those seven because we had 11 players who were meant to attack and get us goals. But when you look at the seven, maybe it's because you were counting when we were in defence, but you were not counting when we were in attack to get the numbers right."
Another trend was that he often decided against using a target man like Lebo Mothiba or Lars Veldwijk but instead going for more mobile forwards who can link things together. Bradley Grobler and Kermit Erasmus were recalled by the coach after losing their places under Baxter. He also used more of a false nine in Gamildien, as mentioned. At Chiefs, he may not see forwards like Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana and Ranga Chivaviro as starters but instead prefer an Ashley Du Preez or Khama Billiat type, if the latter renews his contract. The physical type of striker could be more of a Plan B.
There were not many interesting tactical tweaks besides surprisingly starting Lebogang Phiri as a narrow right winger against Sudan. He scored in the match but didn't feature again under the former Bloemfontein Celtic assistant coach. Perhaps he will consider a similar idea in some Amakhosi matches. Someone like George Matlou could suit a narrow role on the flank, coming inside to find spaces between the lines.
Don't expect to see Kasi Flava on display, though! Ntseki said in an interview that he doesn't condone those type of displays when asked about South Africa's football identity, revealing, "Is showboating or standing on top of the soccer ball part of that identity? If it is, that one we need to discard it because apart from showing disrespect for opponents, it does not develop the game or win you games."
Continuity and a point to prove
There is no doubt that Ntseki is well-educated in terms of coaching badges and academic football courses. He himself said his background as a school teacher means he can identify with different players and their backgrounds and makes him a good listener. His appointment is designed to get the best out of the current squad and the new signings, whilst giving time for Zwane to continue to develop. He is not expected to be a dictator but instead accept any decisions the club makes and to give plenty of input and responsibility to his two assistants. Evidence shows that despite his background with the junior national teams, he may favour experienced players and more basic tactical set-ups.
He will take over with a big point to prove as a head coach after being sacked by Bafana after just nine matches in charge. Ntseki will want to grab this unexpected chance with both hands and hopefully keep the role for a number of years, not just for the final one year of his existing contract. He knows Zwane well and has brought him into the national set-up before, so everyone is expected to be singing from the same hymn sheet for the next 12 months. The big question is whether the fans will show patience if the season starts badly because Ntseki simply does not have any real track record as a head coach and this is his first big job in the PSL. He needs to hit the ground running and continue sprinting because many will see him as an appointment for a good time, not a long time.
