Kaizer Chiefs Sporting Director, Kaizer Jr Motaung, has confirmed that the club is prioritizing the acquisition of attacking reinforcements during the January transfer window.

Motaung acknowledged that despite creating numerous scoring opportunities, the team’s conversion rate under coach Nasreddine Nabi has been a significant concern.

Nabi was appointed during the off-season to revive the club’s fortunes after a disappointing previous campaign that saw them finish outside the top eight under caretaker coach Cavin Johnson, who had succeeded Molefi Ntseki.

Chiefs have scored only 16 goals in 13 league matches, a figure mirrored by their number of goals conceded.

Youngsters Wandile Dube (20) and Mdu Shabalala (20) are the club’s top scorers with four goals each, while striker Ranga Chivaviro has netted three. Chivaviro, however, missed a golden opportunity to increase his tally in their loss to Golden Arrows at the Moses Mabhida Stadium last weekend.

“I don’t want to make excuses, this window clubs don’t want to release players – whether its Jan or June, it’s same. Clubs always want to have their best players and we have to negotiate, identify and we must close deals. That’s our responsibility,” he said. 

“Having said that, offensively it is an area that, since the beginning of the season, we want goals. We want goals and we don’t want to concede. 

“That is one position. Most clubs every year, internationally and locally, are always looking at competitive advantage of. 

“We are definitely looking at upfront, we are looking at attacking options as I said. Having created all the chances that we have had, having played the offensive football we have played, we only signed one attacking player [Gaston Sirino]. 

“That is testimony to good work on the ground, good work by the technical staff. It is quite obvious that the patterns of play, how we approach the games, is very offensive.  

“And it shows a lot of improvement from last year. The conversion rate, it has been a challenge. If we would convert the chances that we have, we would be sitting here saying ‘We are looking for strikers, attackers.’  

“But we are still working because as a big club, we want to be competitive. We are looking and we are trying to see how we can assist each other as best we can.”

Chiefs, who haven’t won a major trophy since the 2014/15 league title, currently occupy sixth place in the Betway Premiership with 18 points from 13 matches. They will return to the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday to host Sekhukhune United, hoping to bounce back from their recent defeat to Golden Arrows.