Kaizer Chiefs assistant coach Khalil Ben Youssef has called for patience, stating that the team cannot be judged solely on their performance within the first six months of the current coaching regime. He emphasized that a more accurate assessment can be made after a full year in the role.

Ben Youssef acknowledged a significant challenge facing the team: “We lack quality in the final third.” Since the appointment of Nasreddine Nabi as head coach and Ben Youssef as his assistant in July, Chiefs have experienced a mixed bag of results.     

“To be honest, to make a new project, it is taking time,” said Ben Youssef, as Chiefs host Sekhukhune United at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday (15:30).  

“Even in life, if you want to make a new project, you can say the project is positive or negative, only after one-year, then you can decide. 

“We are new in this league as technical team and there is also a change of two or three players in the team from last season. 

“So, for that, we need time to make everything right. I think the players are trying, they are making a lot of improvement. Every game we try to analyse along with our video analysts.  

“Like I said before, the problem is always the last third. From the building up, from the progression, we are doing very well and they know what they have to do. 

“But the last third, it is not depending only on the training of the coach, there is a lot of things – the quality of the players, the decision of the players. If our players are making right decisions, we would be talking something else.  

“It was only the cup game against SuperSport United where we scored four goals (in the first round of the Carling Knockout) and we got a lot of chances to score to add. In other games, I don’t want to repeat, but we are unlucky. But the most important thing is we know our problems and we are trying to make it right.”

Amakhosi currently occupies sixth position in the Betway Premiership with 18 points from 13 matches. After the same number of games last season, Chiefs had accumulated 17 points.