Kaizer Chiefs suffer the same old 'big problem' in draw with bottom of the table Chippa United

Kaizer Chiefs and Chippa United played to a goalless draw in the recent Premier Soccer League outing, which denied the Soweto giants at least a top-three slot.

The Glamour Boys dominated the proceedings with 55 per cent in ball possession and had 17 shots, from which five were on target.

Despite their display, once again, they failed to find their way past their relegation-threatened hosts at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

In the Wednesday night game, Vilakazi could have scored when one-on-one with Dumisani Msibi in the Chippa United goal, but the youngster just couldn't hit the target.

It is a massive problem that needs to be addressed, according to co-coach Khalil Ben Youssef, "For us, I think we don’t have an excuse when you get a lot of opportunities,” he told the media.

“Even after six minutes, we got one-on-one, of which we could have scored, and that’s what, but we have to continue to work, we have to correct the same problem.

“Now we are in the last third, but we don’t score. That’s the big problem that we have, we have to continue to work," Ben Youssef continued. 

"Well, coming from the players, it’s individual qualities. So, for us as coaches, we will continue with this individual work, we will continue working because that’s our job to fix our mistakes, and finally, it’s the job of the pair sometimes to find the right decisions in the last third.

“But we will continue to work, and we will try to improve our performance in the last third," he concluded.

Amakhosi have been struggling to get it right in terms of getting goals consistently.

In the 2019/20 season, when they finished second behind Mamelodi Sundowns, they were the top scorers in the top-flight football with 48 strikes.

The following year, when they finished eighth, Amakhosi scored 34 goals, which was the same number of goals again in the 2021/22 edition, where they occupied position fifth.

Amakhosi scored 32 goals in the 2022/23 campaign, where they finished fifth, but it got worse under Cavin Johnson in the 2023/24 season, when they found the back of the net only 25 times and finished 10th, their worst ending in the Premier Soccer League.

Under the immediate former coach, Nasreddine Nabi, Amakhosi scored 28 goals last season and managed to finish ninth on the table. It explains why they signed Flavio Silva, Khanyisa Mayo, and Etiosa Ighodaro to fix the problem.

On Sunday, Amakhosi play TS Galaxy in another tricky Premier Soccer League outing before the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) break. 

If Chiefs beat the Rockets this weekend, they will end up finishing the year third on the table with 26 points from 13 games, two less than leaders Orlando Pirates, who have played 12 matches.

They will have the same number of points as the defending champions, Mamelodi Sundowns, who have a healthy goal difference.