NASREDINNE NABI called it ‘an accident’ and, while he claimed not to be giving excuses, swiftly pleaded with the Kaizer Chiefs fans to bear with their players following the 4-1 drubbing by SuperSport United on Tuesday night.
His time to address the media during the post-match conference was over, but the Chiefs coach extended it with a monologue specifically directed at the Khosi nation.
“So, now I want to speak to the fans because I am not someone who runs away from my responsibility. I want to take this time to explain the situation and not necessarily give them excuses. It is true that today’s results hurt them. And I am also the first person that it hurts.”
“This is not a game they should use to judge their team or at least the potential of their team. These kinds of accidents happen in all championships and it can happen that the score is higher than what we saw today. (But) it is not possible to be a good team three days earlier and then three days after you are a weak team. It is not possible.”
“And we cannot give excuses, but I am very understanding when it comes to my players and today I understood that they gave their best in the previous game and they are tired. So that’s the reason I would like to ask that please be indulgent with your players. As you have done in the happy times, do it also in the difficult times.”
It was an impassioned plea from a man who was evidently hurt by a defeat so compellingly comprehensive he probably would have it erased from his memory were it possible.
Nabi’s team was made to chase non-existent shadows on a wet evening on the very same pitch they’d impressively played Chippa United off the field just three days earlier in a 3-0 Nedbank Cup victory. He put it all down to fatigue.
“It was a very difficult game. From the very first minute we could see it was off game for us. I cannot give excuses all the time, but I believe there’s an excuse seeing that we did not have enough time to recover – just two days. The other team had a week,” he claimed.
While SuperSport had actually played six days prior, he avoided any accountability for the loss entirely. “It is a deserved defeat for us, but you could see that mentally we were not up to standard and we cracked. And unfortunately, we can see that the result is a very painful one for us.”
Two yellows and a red for Gastón Sirino 🔴
He'll miss the Kaizer Chiefs clash against Sundowns next weekend ➡️
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Nabi made some ‘forced changes,’ the replacement of Pule Mmodi after just 36 minutes the most surprising given that the player had just created the equaliser for Glody Lilepo on the half-hour mark after the visitors had raced into a third-minute lead via a former Chiefs player, Samir Nurkovic.
“It was not necessarily a tactical change. I noticed that most of the players were not in the game. If I had the chance to substitute six or seven players I would have done it. I could see that Mmodi had given a lot in the previous game and today in the early minutes he was not in the game. He was tired, but as I mentioned if I could change six or seven players I would have done it.”
However, it all smacked of excuses. Surely Nabi should have seen — prior to the match — the state of his players, particularly those who played against Chippa, and fielded a team made up of those who were much fresher due to not having been involved in the Nedbank Cup tie. His oversight left the team vulnerable, and SuperSport made them pay dearly, prompting him to plead with the club’s fickle fans for indulgence.
Nabi plans to use the lengthy break they are granted due to the suspension of Royal AM, whom they were meant to play this weekend, to have the players rest and test the others via a friendly. He best take advantage of it, as well as he did that moment in the post-match media conference, because next up for them is Mamelodi Sundowns next weekend.