Kaizer Chiefs will be looking to add more misery to Cape Town City when the sides meet in a DStv Premiership clash at the Cape Town Stadium on Sunday (kick-off 5.45pm).
The Citizens have not started the season well and they are currently 12th on the log with 11 points in 10 games and that bad start led to the club sacking coach Eric Tinkler this week.
Tinkler has since been replaced by Muhsin Ertugral, who joined the club as the technical director, but will also serve as interim head coach until the end of the season where a new coach will be announced.
Ertugral will be coming up against his former team in Chiefs and will be looking to get one over them in his first match in charge of City.
He had two separate stints at the helm of Chiefs. His first stint was between 1999 to late 2002, where he won three successive cups with the club, including the now-defunct African Cup Winners’ Cup.
That was commonly known as the Mandela Cup (the trophy was named after former South African president Nelson Mandela and Chiefs were named African Club-of-the-Year in 2001 under Ertugral’s leadership.
The Türkiye-born coach was back at Naturena for two more seasons from 2007 to 2009 and although he won more cups with the club, he was again unable to deliver the elusive league title and was fired.
Meanwhile, Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi has outlined three factors that have affected Chiefs progress this season.
Amakhosi won both of their two opening matches against Marumo Gallants and AmaZulu, but have since won two of their last eight matches.
“There are three factors. The first one is when you play a lot of young players, the inconsistency of the performance is normal,” said Nabi.
“Then the second thing is we have been having a lot of injuries that have been impacting our performance on the field and as well impacting the results, which brought so much pressure on the team, on the coach from outside.”
Nabi added that the pressure from the media has also affected Chiefs players.
“As I have said before a number of times, sometimes, it is because they play with fear so as not to lose.
“Not the fear to score more, but the fear just not to lose,” concluded Nabi.
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