Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi insists he will not criticise the performance of his players in public but has instead taken responsibility for the 4-0 defeat by Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday.
Chiefs were eliminated from the Carling Knockout Cup in the quarter-final stage in front of a packed FNB Stadium in Soweto.
This was the heaviest defeat for the Tunisian coach since he took charge of the Soweto giants at the start of the 2024/25 season.
Nabi admits that his players were below par during the game but says he takes all the responsibility as the head coach.
“Somehow, I share your assessment that the players were not good enough today [Saturday]. But the responsibility is mine as a coach,” he told the media.
KAIZER CHIEFS HEAD COACH TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOLLOWING DEFEAT TO MAMELODI SUNDOWNS
“I am going to take full responsibility for today’s game because I don’t want to criticise my players in front of the media.”
He added: “But I will do it internally. Everyone will take responsibility. But I believe that it’s true that they were far from their best performance because even at the beginning of the game, they were very nervous. A lot of missed passes and a lot of balls lost.”
NASREDDINE NABI EXPLAINS THEIR APPROACH DURING THE CARLING KNOCKOUT QUARTER-FINAL MATCH AT FNB
Nabi says they had a clear game plan, but it was difficult to execute, given the quality of their opposition – Sundowns.
“It would be very simple if you had to change your way of playing our game plan every day. It showed that we played against a quality team that was pressing high, and we knew that would happen.
“But do we need to play long balls to [Mfundo] Vilakazi and the other players? No. Instead, we want to improve our quality of play. We were a little nervous, we need to improve our decision, our technique and our confidence with the teammates.”
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