Former Orlando Pirates midfielder Benedict Vilakazi has questioned Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter’s starting line-up against Al Ahly.
Amakhosi lost 3-0 to Al Ahly in the Caf Champions League final in Casablanca on Saturday and Vilakazi has pointed to Baxter’s decisions for the defeat.
The ex-Bafana Bafana star thinks Happy Mashiane and Nkosingiphile Ngcobo should not have started the game and were overwhelmed by the occasion as they were coming up against more experienced Al Ahly players.
“When the game started, Chiefs looked like they really wanted to compete. There was some hope that they could push it to extra time looking at how they were playing,” said Vilakazi on iDiskiTV .
“But I had questions that you cannot have experienced players and make them sit on the bench. You want to introduce them as substitutes as if they are youngsters. You can’t do that.
"He [Baxter] played Mashiane and deployed Ngcobo on the right.
“For me that was it. It was like saying to coach Pitso, I’m giving you the trophy and the medals because these two boys are young and do not have experience.
"Also, Ngcobo was being played out of position. He is not a winger, he is an attacking midfielder so why can’t you play him in midfield and get someone else to play wide.”
While Khama Billiat recovered from injury a few weeks ago, he was surprisingly on the bench and only came on just after half-time, replacing Ngcobo.
Leonardo Castro was surprisingly left out as well and spent the entire match on the bench.
Vilakazi argues that regarding Billiat as unfit was not valid because the whole team had spent weeks without being involved in competitive action.
“He [Baxter] then introduced Khama in the second half to make him an impact player and there were questions that he was out and not fit. But the whole team spent three weeks without playing a match so everyone was unfit,” Vilakazi continued.
“When it comes to experienced players, even if you are unfit, what you do is use your experience. You might struggle to run 10 or five metres because you are not fit but you can make the ball get to certain positions instead of making so many runs.”
Lebogang Manyama was expected to start but was ruled out of the match with injury.
