Newly appointed Al Wahda coach Pitso Mosimane believes Nasreddine Nabi has what it takes to coach Kaizer Chiefs, and also insisted modern, top-level coaches need their own technical teams.
Mosimane is currently in South Africa to take a short break in between his two coaching gigs after leaving Al Ahli Jeddah and before starting his new role at Al Wahda FC, who unveiled him over the weekend.
He also attended the launch of his Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools and has been talking to several tv and radio stations this week.
During Wednesday’s appearance on Sport Night Amplified with Andile Ncube, Mosimane discussed whether Nabi, whose former club Young Africans SC he visited ahead of the 2022/23 campaign, would be a good fit for Chiefs.
“Good guy, good coach,” he stated.
“He’s won double-trebles, not many people have won double-trebles. I think I got it twice but in different years, he got it two years in a row.
“[But] South African football is not Tanzanian football. Tanzanian football is Yanga, Simba, Azam and the rest – no disrespect to anybody.
“He knows the stress, he knows the pressure to deliver. He knows that kind of stress, so he would handle the pressure and the stress well. And he has proved that he is good, he took Yanga to the final of the [CAF] Confederations Cup.
“I hope he can do it, I’m not sure because I don’t really know the quality of the players at Kaizer Chiefs, I can’t judge, because I’m not really watching a lot.”
With the talks between Nabi and Chiefs understood to have stuttered around the Tunisian coach’s request to bring his own technical team, Mosimane highlighted the importance of surrounding yourself with expert coaches at the highest level.
“No, you can’t,” he explained when asked, if he could join a club without his technical team.
“How do you do that? The level at which we are, you have a team. The teams when they recruit you, they don’t ask you, they know it’s a package. So I have a team that comes over there [Al Wahda].
“We’ve increased the team now, we brought in a goalkeeper coach who was with me in Al Ahli in Saudi. I’ve taken him in for many reasons – he speaks English well, he speaks Arabic and he also will help me.
“He knows my philosophy, he knows how I play. He knows the philosophy of the team, I build from the back like many teams now in South Africa are doing.
“I want him to coach the goalkeeper because it’s important. That’s the start of the play, from the back. That’s why the best goalkeepers are very expensive.”
Mosimane, who has again surrounded himself with an expert technical team, consisting of assistant coach Maahier Davids, fitness and conditioning coach Kabelo Rangoaga, analysts Musi Matlaba and Kyle Solomon, as well as new goalkeeper coach, Hamad Alyami, further explained that coaching – like many things in life – have evolved to a new level.
“Not at the highest level, [you need a technical team],” he added.
“Things have evolved, from iPhone1 to iPhone13 or 14 now. Life has changed, look at the dashboard of your car. We have apps now on the phone. We used to have Nokia and Ericsson, there were no apps.”
