Chiefs’ Ben Youssef is showing the strain

It has all gone a bit February flop for Amakhosi.

Arms folded in about as defensive a position as possible, Kaizer Chiefs co-head coach Khalil Ben Youssef sat in the post match press conference at FNB Stadium following Amakhosi’s 2-1 Betway Premiership loss to Stellenbosch on Tuesday evening.

Chiefs coach feels the heat

His responses to questions were terse and dismissive, so much so that he ended up getting a polite telling off from the chairman of the South African Football Journalists Association Velile Mbule.

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Ben Youssef’s irritation is understandable. From a position of relative strength, Amakhosi are increasingly unlikely to win any silverware this season.

Knocked out of both the Nedbank Cup and Caf Confederation Cup inside a month, Chiefs now trail Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates by eight points in the title race.

Ahead of Saturday’s Soweto derby against Pirates, this was a game Chiefs really needed to win, to turn up the heat on the Buccaneers.

Instead, they capitulated horribly in the second half, with Stellies coach Gavin Hunt grabbing the opportunity to rub further salt in his former employers’ wounds.

Stellenbosch have been underwhelming for much of this season, but in they have now beaten Chiefs 2-1 twice in the same month, also knocking them out of the Nedbank Cup.

Little wonder Hunt went hurtling up the touchline in gleeful celebration as Devin Titus curled a fine winner past Brandon Petersen.

On a hiding to nothing?

But back to the surly Ben Youssef. He and co-head coach Cedric Kaze were left with a bit of a bad hand when they took over from Nasreddine Nabi in September.

Only given the job until the end of this season, it was always likely they were keeping the seat warm for someone else, whatever their results.

And at first those results were good, as they guided Chiefs up the Betway Premiership table, and into the group stages of the Caf Confederation Cup.

It has all gone a bit February flop, however, and defeat on Saturday against Pirates in the final game of the month could make for a miserable March too.

ALSO READ: Ben Youssef apologises to Chiefs fans after Stellies loss

No wonder Ben Youssef is feeling the strain. He could certainly have found a better way to answer questions on Tuesday, but his mood was understandable.

The good news is that victory over Pirates in the derby can provide an instant tonic. Lose, however, and Chiefs’ season, along with Ben Youssef’s and Kaze’s, could go downhill in more of a mess than a bad skier on black ice.