Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi reckons Kaizer Chiefs are a refreshed team under the guidance of head coach Nasreddine Nabi.
Before the 2-1 defeat to Sundowns, the Tunisian mentor had picked up two wins on the trot, opening up the 2024/25 Betway Premiership campaign with a 2-1 win over Marumo Gallants before following that up with a 3-1 hammering of AmaZulu.
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Despite Nabi suffering his first defeat at the hands of the defending champions at a sold out FNB Stadium on Saturday, Mngqithi heaped huge praise on the Amakhosi coach and how he seemed to have brought a new lease of life at Naturena.
“To be honest, I think the team [Chiefs] looks very good,” Mngqithi said in his post-match presser.
“It looks refreshed. It looks energized. And the structure that coach Nabi is playing with, is very potent.
“It’s very difficult for teams to really understand because he has that front three that is cheating. And he’s got the four in the midfield with the two pivots.
“And uses [Wandile] Duba on one side. And uses the fron three up there. [Bradley] Cross would push a little bit more, and they remain with the last three which is why we wanted Tashreeq [Mattews] to be outside [Reeve] Frosler.
“Initially, we thought Duba would be on that side. We wanted to make sure that we stretch Frosler a little bit because Cross was never supposed to be there.
“But the truth is, it’s refreshing to see a Kaizer Chiefs team that plays like this,” Manqoba added.
In conclusion, the Sundowns mentor offered Chiefs small advice, saying:
“They must look to try and try to dominate matches more, because we cannot as big teams always rely on good rest attack and counterattacks.
“We must also try to really put our foot forward.
“But I’m very happy with the progress the coach has made in such a short space of time.”
