Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi admits the pressure to get positive results consistently has made it difficult for him to promote young players into the senior team.
Nabi has included a number of Chiefs youngsters in his side, although he found most of them in the senior team, but he has struggled to give DStv Diski Challenge stars a run into his side for fear of putting so much pressure on their young shoulders, given the demands at the club.
“If there wasn’t pressure like at Kaizer Chiefs, you could give the younger players a chance already, but when you have a lot of pressure and results are not very good, you have to manage which time you put them in to start playing because if you put them in bad situations, you can kill the careers of these players, so for that we manage,” Nabi said, as quoted by SPORTSWIRE.
“The plan for the season we discussed with the board is that we must build a team, and also, we have to keep [an eye on] our younger players, DDC players, and give them a chance. You saw [Wandile] Duba was one of the best players in the game [against Sundowns].
Which youngsters have Nabi relied on?
“Aden [McCarthy] is with us, and every time we try to bring a player from DDC, they can make a [training] session with us, and we see if they are ready because we don’t think about how old you are. If they deserve to play, they must play – it’s not about age.”
Players like McCarthy, who has been a shining star for Chiefs’ DDC team that is in the race to win their first title, are yet to get minutes into the senior team and it looks like it will take some time before that happens.
Nabi has, however, relied on some young but experienced players at Chiefs this season with the likes of Samkelo Zwane, Wandile Duba, Mduduzi Shabalala and Mfundo Vilakazi playing a key role.
Chiefs have struggled for results with their inconsistencies seeing them stuck in eighth place in the PSL although they have a chance to end their 10-year trophy drought in the Nedbank Cup final against Orlando Pirates on May 10.
