Dove Gives Frank Assessment Of Chiefs’ Defensive Woes
Kaizer Chiefs defender Edmilson Dove has given an honest assessment of the Soweto giants’ defensive frailties as the club has conceded the third most goals in the ongoing 2024/25 Betway Premiership campaign.
Amakhosi have been leaking goals this term, with 28 conceded so far in the league, in contrast to the 30 goals they allowed past their defense last season – a campaign that saw them record their worst-ever finish in PSL history in 10th place.
Currently, only Marumo Gallants and AmaZulu have conceded more goals than the Glamour Boys.
Relegation-threatened Bahlabane Ba Ntwa saw their defense get bypassed 34 times in 23 league outings, while Usuthu let in 32 goals in 24 matches played.
With the Chiefs defense often subject to criticism, the Mozambican international believes the responsibility of defending lies with the whole team, not just the defense department, and suggests their woes can be curtailed if they convert their chances at the other end of the pitch.
“Defending doesn’t start at the back; it’s a whole unity problem. There are things that we need to fix starting from the front to the back because when we concede goals, not only defenders concede goals, but it’s the whole team, so it’s something we need to fix as a unit, not as a department,” said Dove.
“We take one game at a time, and yes, we have conceded silly goals sometimes, but we choose not to focus too much on what we can’t control anymore – all the games are gone. I think the most important thing now is focusing on minimizing our mistakes going forward and scoring whenever we get a chance.”
On the Naturena-based outfit grinding to avoid missing out on a top 8 spot for two successive seasons, Dove says Chiefs deserves to fight for major honors. The 30-year-old called for focus and unity, with the business end of the season slowly approaching.
“This is not a team to be fighting for top 8 or top 4, it deserves to be on top. I don’t want to dwell a lot on what happened last season because it’s disappointing even for us as players not being able to find ourselves in one of the cups,” he added.
“But you know that’s life; we can only control whatever we can, and the gents are working extremely hard at training. The frustrations come from the amount of work that we put in, and come game days, we are not able to walk away with results.
“Sometimes you have a feeling that it could have been better, we do everything we can, it’s just one of those moments where we need to remain focused, never give up, be united and continue pressing forward.”
Nasreddine Nabi’s charges are currently in eighth place in the South African top-flight standings with 29 points accumulated after 23 games played. Chiefs will host TS Galaxy at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in their next match on Saturday (19:00).
