Kaizer Chiefs legends Itumeleng Khune and Doctor Khumalo have reacted to Mduduzi Shabalala missing yet another sitter though they share different views on why the youngster hasn’t been able to score recently.
The midfielder has found it tough converting chances in Chiefs’ crucial games that led to the side relinquishing their Nedbank Cup title in the first round and sitting a precarious position to qualify for the quarterfinals of the CAF Confederation Cup.
Amakhosi needed to defeat Al Masry by at least two goals without conceding in the penultimate group match of the continental competition in Polokwane on Sunday to automatically qualify for the knockout stage. But they missed chances including Shabalala’s memorable opportunity in the dying minutes of the game.
Khune said one of the things the 22-year-old needs to do is to stop rushing his decisions.
“Shabalala always finds himself in good scoring positions but unfortunately he lacks the unawareness he needs to stay calm because he is always rushing his decisions,” said Khune on SABC TV.
“I was a goalkeeper I know when I’m facing a striker luckily, I was taught differently that as a goalkeeper stay on your feet as much as possible as long as possible and decide for the striker not the striker deciding for you. But most goalkeepers they come out they commit themselves.
“So there, Shabalala should have picked up his head and seen that the goalkeeper is going down, maybe just chip it a little bit. It needed some height because other goalkeepers they commit. Unfortunately, he missed again but I’m happy that he’s getting himself in these good scoring opportunities.”
For ‘Mdokies’, the schedule has contributed to the player’s misfortunes while he also thinks Shabalala can be coached better.
“Like I said congestion of games it doesn’t give the team chances for them to be able to deal with this,” said Khumalo.
“The chance that you saw is the same three chances he had against Stellenbosch. But unfortunately, they didn’t have time to go and rectify those mistakes. So, in this instance it’s an individual it’s not the collective. It’s an individual against Stellies that had three opportunities to score but he couldn’t execute properly.
“So, we call that functional training so you can’t fault probably the boy because there is somebody who is coaching him. It’s a coachable situation. What we do, we play the ball towards the left with a cone before we can put in a defender. The cone it represents a defender, so it makes him to execute properly but they don’t have time to do that.”
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