NKARENG MATSHE | Cup win bought Nabi some time, but it can't be business as usual

Ordinarily, there shouldn’t be a debate about Nasreddine Nabi’s future as Kaizer Chiefs coach.

Here’s someone who, in under 10 months, has managed to immerse himself into the hearts of the club’s supporters by winning them their first trophy in a decade, and stunning their bitter rivals with a commanding performance in the final.

Fervent countrywide celebrations that followed Chiefs’ 2-1 win over Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup final last weekend told a story of relief, the multitudes of Amakhosi supporters finally exuding happiness after years of torment and ridicule.

It’s easy to get lost in the euphoria of festivities, not least after such a long time, but the reality should now dawn on the Chiefs fans: a proper review of Nabi’s performance – the cup win notwithstanding – should be undertaken.

A sober analysis of the club’s overall performance throughout the season cannot merely be masked by a successful cup run.

The facts remain. As pointed out in this space before, Nabi has yet to embark on a run of more than two successive wins. Chiefs’ inconsistency is the main reason they might, for the second season running, finish outside the top eight. Last week’s elation cannot hide a pathetic run of one win in the last 10 league matches.

Neither can it conceal the 12 defeats in the Betway Premiership, as well as a porous defence, which has let in 31 goals to make it the third worst in the league after Marumo Gallants (37 goals against) and 15th-placed Cape Town City (also 31 conceded).

With a paltry 30 points from 26 games, Chiefs are just seven points ahead of City, but are a distant 40 behind champions Mamelodi Sundowns. Nobody would take to the streets to blow horns and vuvuzelas for such a wretched record.

It’s a mystery how Chiefs have failed to establish a modicum of consistency under Nabi. I watched them dispatch Chippa United 3-0 in the cup one Saturday, only to dish out a listless performance against SuperSport United three days later and lose 1-4. It was just inexplicable.

Of course, Nabi cannot solely be blamed for Chiefs’ travails. I have seen some of his players make basic mistakes that no coach can take fault for – and these mistakes often have a drastic impact on the result. For instance, Chiefs should have been 2-0 before Marumo equalised – and eventually beat them 2-1 – on April 26. There have been plenty of such games, where Chiefs created plenty of chances but allowed the opposition to escape with a point or three.

Creating scoring opportunities is a sign Nabi is doing something right, and perhaps last week’s heroic cup win should buy him more time to continue with what he calls a “process”. The next phase, however, cannot mirror what we saw this season.

His excuse that he requires “quality players” is not far-fetched. Chiefs urgently need to beef up in areas such as left-back, right-back, central defence and centre-forward to be competitive.

The club’s hierarchy spoke in riddles when directly queried on Nabi’s future after the Sunday Times report from last week that he faces the sack. Understandably, they deferred the answer until after the remaining two matches, which would determine if Amakhosi make the top eight or not.

He probably will survive – thanks in the main to a contract that could prove too costly to terminate –  but it cannot be business as usual.

The Tunisian must wholly improve, and that includes his relations with his technical team, which, oddly, has no SA representative (Sundowns and Pirates have the experienced Steve Komphela and Mandla Ncikazi as assistants).

Eventually, if Nabi is indeed good, Chiefs won’t win only a cup – they would be up there challenging for the top three places in the league.

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