What Shabalala and Zwane must know.

                                                     Image credit: Kaizer Chiefs Twitter

In Mduduzi Shabalala and Samkelo Zwane, Kaizer Chiefs have two players with the club’s DNA flowing through their veins.

Both youngsters play with flair, as well as a kind of self-confidence that borders on arrogance, a characteristic of many a great player. It is not a surprise that the two have instantly won the hearts of the hard to impress Amakhosi fans, but with that, comes added pressure to always impress.

That is a trap Zwane and Shabalala must do their best, with the help of their coach, Arthur Zwane, to try and avoid.

At their age and the stage of their careers, the two players are prone to making a mistake of playing to the gallery, in an effort to please the crowd, to the detriment of the team’s tactics and what the game requires at that moment. Zwane and Shabalala, must be careful not to be too eager to please the crowd.

To their advantage, they are blessed to have a coach like Arthur Zwane, who understands where the two youngsters come from, what they are experiencing at the moment in their careers, and what they need to do to be the best that they can be.

The coach’s thoughts on Zwane and Shabalala:

"We know when you are working on something you will have youngsters playing football on pure instinct rather than understanding the structure because everything is about [having] a [tactical] structure at this level," Zwane said as quoted by iDiski Times. https://www.idiskitimes.co.za/dstv-premiership/zwane-admits-promising-chiefs-duo-lack-tactical-structure/

“Yes, as soon as they get excited sometimes, they become a bit loose because of what they hear from the stands and then they think it’s easy and we end up losing on the structure. That is where we [as coaches have to] come in to remind them, these people are one man down, let’s murder them, let’s bury them.

"As they grow and develop, in South Africa, I think players mature at the age of 26, 27, very few that you see excelling at the age of 20, 21, they still need a lot of guidance.

"We have to play them with people who are experienced, that’s why we have players like Keagan Dolly on the field, as long as he’s there. He’s been in France [and Bafana Bafana], otherwise, if you’re not going to have a spine with leaders maybe as a front man, in midfield and in defence and goalkeeper – then you might have a problem," Zwane added.

"You need people who can lead these youngsters while we’re trying to build an identity. With them, yes, we have an advantage as they’ve been in the development and that is why with Samkelo you see these glimpses of him getting the ball at the right areas, dangerous areas where we can hurt people.

"Players like Sithebe and Yusuf, you still see a little bit of instinct here and there [not structure] and you understand why… when the results are not forthcoming, we want to win the game at all costs, and we end up losing our structure.

"So, what is key, is to grind results and as long as we grind the results, the structure will become visible [as wins pile up], everyone will see this is how Chiefs play because it builds the confidence of the team you know."