Kaizer Chiefs have hit a slump in form after they were promising to turn the corner and be hard to beat after a five-game unbeaten run was ended by Orlando Pirates in the Soweto derby.

The manner in which Chiefs lost against Pirates was characteristic of their season so far, defensive mistakes handing the opposition cheap goals, as a combination of a goalkeeping error by Daniel Akpeyi and a poor clearance by Reeve Frosler led to Thembinkosi Lorch opening the scoring and putting the Glamour Boys on the back-foot.

Gavin Hunt's charges were creating chances upfront, but like in previous matches they were not clinical enough and went on to lose 2-1.

In the Nedbank Cup against Richards Bay, another goalkeeping error led to the first goal scored by the Natal Rich Boyz and although Chiefs found the equaliser, the second-tier side capitalised on the big space in the last third after Siphosakhe Ntiya-Ntiya was red-carded and snatched the winner in stoppage time.

The way in which Chiefs conceded in the dying minutes against Richards Bay and against Pirates was characteristic of a slow defence playing a high line.

Hunt got a lot of credit for converting midfielder Anthony Akumu into a central defender and although the Kenyan can defend well, especially in one-on-one situations he lacks pace to play as a last-man in defence.

And since the former Bidvest Wits coach wanted his defence to push high up the pitch, teams have been targeting that weakness in their defence and they realised that once your get a through ball, you will get a lot of space to exploit behind the defence that is very slow.

Hunt needs to go back to the basics and reinstall Daniel Cardoso in central defence instead of playing him as a midfielder and recall Willard Katsande to shield the back-four in his usual defensive midfield role.

He can use Cardoso in defensive midfield once he has found the right replacement for him in defence and even Eric Mathoho can do a better job than Akumu at the moment.

Chiefs are scheduled to open their first ever CAF Champions League group stage campaign against Wydad Casablanca on Saturday but the fixture is in danger of not taking place as Amakhosi are yet to receive their visas due to South Africa being on the list of countries that are banned from entering Morocco, due the high rate of Covid-19 cases in the country.

"With just under 12 hours before the Kaizer Chiefs squad is due to depart for Morocco, members of the traveling party have not been issued with visas to enter the North African country despite applications being submitted timeously," the club said in a statement.



"Wydad did confirm that they are awaiting confirmation from their Ministry of Health to grant Kaizer Chiefs special permission to enter the country because South Africa is on the list of countries that have been banned from entering Morocco due of the high numbers of the Covid-19 infections. No response has been received by Wydad or Kaizer Chiefs to this effect."

Chiefs added that they will send a delegation to the Moroccan Embassy for clarity and request the issuing of visas.

Do you think Katsande and Mathoho should be brought back into the Chiefs line-up if the match goes ahead?

Content created and supplied by: @Thatob_ (via Opera News )