Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi was far from satisfied with his side’s performance against Chippa United on Saturday, questioning his team’s mental fortitude after the goalless draw at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
The stalemate left Chiefs’ hopes of a top-eight finish in doubt and the overall performance, which saw AmaKhosi create few goal chances and fail to force a single corner, left little for the 18 000-odd supporters to enthuse over.
“It was a very tough game for us. We expected before that it would be a very difficult game after the game against Sundowns,” said a visibly irritated Nabi.
Chiefs should have come into the game brimming with confidence after knocking Mamelodi Sundowns out 2-1 in their Nedbank Cup semifinal at Loftus Versfeld last weekend, but it proved a different story in Gqeberha.
“Mentally, I think that Chippa were more ready than us. Their challenge, how they fought, they tried to take the points. You know in football, if you are not ready, you lose organisation, you lose your performance, and I think that's the resume of this game.”
“We had discussed before this game all the week about how we must be ready for this game, how we must focus. We tried to get our players mentally ready.”
“A smart player, if they make one mistake, they can't repeat the same mistake again,” added Nabi, possibly in reference Dillon Solomon’s giving possession away in dangerous situations more than once in the first half and being replaced at the break.
“We must understand that if we don't give 100 per cent, keep up our game mentality, we can’t win games.”
Chiefs have four games left in their Betway Premiership season and next host Marumo Gallants at Soccer City on Saturday (live on SuperSport).