Kaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela concerned by shooting stats

by Graeme Jackson

Thursday Nov 23, 2017. 17:30

Kaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela has admitted that he is concerned at learning that his team took more than an hour to register their first shot on target against AmaZulu yesterday.

The Amakhosi played to a goalless draw away to Usuthu at Princess Magogo Stadium, having offered little threat through the match. Their first shot on target only arrived from a header by Gustavo Paez in the 66th minute – and they had only one more in the remainder of the game.

The hosts, by contrast, were ‘trigger happy’ and hit eight shots on target, only to find Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune in superb form, as he even kept out a penalty kick.

“Someone asked me that after the match. I still have to go back and look,” Komphela told reporters after the match, as quoted by Kick-Off.

“Looking at how the match unfolded, how many did AmaZulu have? How many? I’m trying to draw a comparison and then without defending us, because if you say at the 60th minute we got nothing and AmaZulu was 14 shots on target then there’s really cause for concern... we have to look at that.

“If it’s 60 minutes Chiefs zero, AmaZulu zero, one or two, then it points at the match. The conditions just didn't make it easy but that doesn’t have to come out with excuses.

“I wish I knew how many AmaZulu had after 60 minutes, then I’ll respond with a little bit more relevance. But we need to create chances and goalmouth action, but again when you are playing a team that is pressing that is not going to be easy.”

Komphela added, “In the first half I thought they did better and we got to grips in the second half.

“They missed the penalty, we were lucky to survive but congratulations again must go to Itu, who read the situation and stood his ground, made the save.

“We also had a couple of chances. I thought we should’ve won the match. There’s a number of maybe calls that we should’ve done better with in terms of our defensive line.

“In the final third we were a bit desperate in terms of taking chances. On any given day or under other circumstances we could’ve taken those chances even the [Siphiwe Tshabalala] ‘Shabba’ one in the last minute.”