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For a brief four days in December, Kaizer Chiefs held a 13-point lead over Mamelodi Sundowns as the race for the 2019-20 Absa Premiership title drew near the middle of the stage.
On Friday, December 6, the Chiefs were flying high from 10 wins in their first 12 games to top with 31 points, 10 points above second-ranked SuperSport United (21 points from 13 games) and third-ranked Sundowns (21 of 11).
On Saturday, December 7, Samir Nurkovic’s hat-trick propelled the Chiefs to a thrilling 5-3 victory against Bloemfontein Celtic at Moses Mabhida Stadium. Amakhosi had found a real scorer, coach Ernst Middendorp’s unannounced signings were proving smart.
The nightmare of the previous season, in which Giovanni Solinas’ confusing start gave way to Middendorp’s initial promise, but which ultimately deflated to a ninth place in the league and, worse still, the 1-0 humiliation for him. TS Galaxy of First Division in the final of the Nedbank Cup. , was over.
With Sundowns not in action again until they beat Stellenbosch FC 3-1 on Wednesday, December 11, the 13-point lead lasted for four days, though Middendorp went to great lengths at the time to point out that Downs had two games in hand. Still, that lead seemed too much even for Pitso Mosimane’s defending champion trophy machine to falter. Amakhosi seemed unstoppable for a title in his 50th anniversary season.
A 1-1 draw in the Maritzburg United in Chiefs last game before PSL’s midseason break saw the lead shrink to seven points. Experts pointed out that with the Chiefs’ team’s lack of experience in closing trophies (which showed again when Maritzburg’s Judas Moseamedi “saved the country” in the Telkom Knockout semifinals), and the obvious pedigree of Downs, winner of the Caf Champions League 2016, Amakhosi would have to. preserve a buffer to secure the title. A blow-by-blow shot would surely favor the Brazilians.
Middendorp scoffed at the suggestion. Teasing is one of the coach’s unattractive personality traits. It denies the weakness of being able to absorb suggestions, no matter how valid or invalid. Suggests insecurity in confidence in own abilities.
After the Christmas break, the Chiefs lost 2-1 to SuperSport United and Sundowns narrowed the gap to four points, just a month after it was 13. The Christmas jitters were the first of a few such spells in the second half. it’s from the season. where the Chiefs had just six wins, four draws and five losses in their second 15 games.
This has also been a hallmark of Middendorp’s coaching career, starting with the initial success but somehow being self-destructive in that process as it continues. The coach is tactically astute, studies opponents in detail, and is good at unusual positional changes that get the best out of players, such as Lebogang Manyama’s excellent transition to a central midfielder. Most of the players who have served under him in his club crowd refer to him as technically sound.
It’s when Middendorp’s stubbornness, inflexibility, mismanagement and insecurity, leading to fights with high-level players, and Chiefs naturally took over more big-name stars than a Maritzburg United, Free State. Stars or Bloemfontein Celtic, that the train begins to derail.
Naturena’s clues were that Middendorp was fighting older players during the biobubble, the crucial death portion of the season. Perhaps, however, we don’t even really need such prompts.
Middendorp’s angry body language and bad mood: fighting with journalists on Facebook posts, accusing his own media staff of being in cahoots with the press when they asked tough questions, and refusing to attend the post-match press conference afterward of the 1-0 of the Chiefs. loss to Bidvest Wits – seemed like a gift enough.
Itumeleng Khune wasn’t even on the bench for the first six games of the bubble and no one at Chiefs would explain why. Willard Katsande was regularly substituted after making only one mistake in a match. These were other telltale signs.
Middendorp had highly publicized feuds with Leonardo Castro and Khama Billiat in 2018-19, with both wanting to leave the club in the offseason. The coach fought Billiat and his FA for playing for Zimbabwe this season.
PSL’s best attacker in shape, Billiat’s bizarre three-week “break” after Christmas turned into six weeks, and he came back rusty rather than refreshed. He scored two crucial goals in the Chiefs’ last two games, only his second and third goals of the season, but he was a shadow of the strength he is capable of being.
Amid this man-management mess, Middendorp’s picks on the bubble, even in the context of the need for turnover, were strange.
Khune and Akpeyi should have been the international stars pushing each other as a goalkeeper. As Akpeyi conceded nine goals in five games, Khune should have been called up earlier. Instead, Akpeyi had to suffer a concussion for it to happen.
Ramahlwe Mphahlele’s return to the starting lineup after having played just three matches all season to be flayed by Bloemfontein Celtic’s young left-back Sifiso Ngobeni in a 3-1 loss was costly. Placing 17-year-old Keletso Sifama on the wing in the 1-0 loss to the Mamelodi Sundowns was unfair to the youngster.
So ultimately after the Chiefs, perhaps unsurprisingly considering all of the above, meekly capitulated on the final day with a 1-1 draw against Baroka FC where Amakhosi failed to create a shot at 36 minutes after Manuel Kambala’s draw in the 59th minute, what should the autopsy be in Middendorp in 2019-20?
Quite simply, yes, the coach deserves credit for his awkward and effective game plan, with a team that doesn’t come close, even with some smart signings, to the kind of Sundowns who have run in the first half of the season. Not the palooka, well, technically at least, he’s often been portrayed unfairly.
Ultimately, though, he also deserves all the criticism for undoing all that good work by allowing himself to be himself again. And ultimately, he bears the blame for the Chiefs’ failure to secure a league title in their half-century season.
