How Hunt’s Kaizer Chiefs could line up next season

Premier Soccer League (PSL) giants Kaizer Chiefs finally struck a deal to make Gavin Hunt their new head coach.

After lengthy talks about Ernst Middendorp’s success at the Naturena giants, Hunt has officially joined Chiefs on a three-year deal.

The former Bidvest Wits coach is seen as the man who could finally hand over Amakhosi’s first big trophy since 2015.

Hunt favored a 4-3-3 formation during the 2019/20 season and it proved effective when Wits beat the Chiefs 1-0 in a PSL game last month.

objective Take a look at how the Glamor Boys could line up under the consummate coach by looking at the current squad:

Goalkeeper

The Soweto giants have four blocks in their goalkeeping department, namely Daniel Akpeyi, Brylon Petersen, Bruce Bvuma and Itumeleng Khune.

Akpeyi was the first-choice goalkeeper under Middendorp and the Nigeria international established himself as one of PSL’s best goalkeepers during the 2019/20 season.

However, Hunt is known to be a huge fan of Khune, as he stated that the quality goalkeeper is worth about 20 points to the club when he was in good shape a few years ago.

The 56-year-old strategist is likely to choose Khune as his first-choice goalkeeper, as captain Amakhosi has kept three clean sheets in four league games last season that saw him struggle with injuries.

Defending

The former SuperSport United manager has rejoined Reeve Frosler at Chiefs after handing the South African youth international his professional debut at Wits.

Frosler is coming off a successful season in which he excelled playing on both the left and right sides and will be preferred ahead of Kgotso Moleko at the right back position.

Hunt is more likely to stick with the proven pair of Erick Mathoho and Daniel Cardoso at the heart of Amakhosi’s defense.

While Yagan Sasman, who turned heads with some solid performances in his debut season at Chiefs, could get the nod ahead of Siphosakhe Ntiya-Ntiya at the left-back position.

Midfield

Hunt usually lines up with a central defensive midfielder and two midfielders ahead of him.

George Maluleka’s departure left a void in Amakhosi’s midfield and the team had to look to Anthony Akumu, who has yet to live up to expectations.

The Cape Town-born strategist could go for Willard Katsande, Kearyn Baccus and Lebogang Manyama in a three-man midfield.

Katsande is still a quality defensive midfielder, protecting the defense and Baccus has impressed as the controller and generally sets the pace of the game.

While Manyama proved to be Amakhosi’s chief orchestrator as he tied the midfield with the forwards in front of him and recorded the most assists (nine) in the league from midfield.

Attack

The Chiefs had the most potent attack in the league, scoring 48 goals and Hunt will likely be left with the three prolific forwards.

Samir Nurkovic stood out in his debut season as the first-choice center forward under Middendorp and scored 14 goals in all competitions.

Leonardo Castro and Khama Billiat were also influential as forwards, scoring 11 goals in all competitions between them.

Lazarous Kambole remains untested at PSL having scored once last season, while Bernard Parker, in the twilight of his career, failed to score a single goal.

Here’s how Amakhosi could line up with Hunt in charge.