POLOKWANE, SOUTH AFRICA – SEPTEMBER 20: Edson Castillo of Kaizer Chiefs during the DStv Premiership match between SuperSport United and Kaizer Chiefs at Peter Mokaba Stadium on September 20, 2023 in Polokwane, South Africa. (Photo by Philip Maeta/Gallo Images)
Kaizer Chiefs head coach Molefi Ntseki appears to have found his ideal midfield combination owing to an unexpected tactical tweak and the addition of new recruit Sibongiseni Mthethwa.
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Arguably Chiefs’ best player this season, Edson Castillo, has been deployed in a number of positions since joining the club at the start of the campaign.
However, the club was not getting the best out of the Venezuelan, as he played in a slightly deeper role, which inhibited his obvious goalscoring prowess.
Now, thanks to a tactical switch that saw Yusuf Maart drop into a holding midfield role and the addition of ‘Ox’ who was signed from Stellenbosch, Ntseki appears to have found his ideal midfield trio of an attacking threat in Castillo, an orchestrator in Maart and a destroyer in Mthethwa.
“In our profiling of Castillo we realized that he is more of an eight than a six because he scored [in] a few games playing for his team back in Venezuela. He is the player we needed that is why we decided to bring him to Kaizer Chiefs, and he proved us right in terms of the qualities that he possesses as an individual,” he told journalists at a press conference hosted at the club’s Naturena Village on Monday.
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“For the past four games we have been playing Castillo as an eight and we realized that playing him as part of a six, he has to cover too big of a distance to get to the goal and score. But now that he plays as an eight, he knows he has got the cover if he has to lose the ball or get into transition.
“Yusuf has done really well in the six role of which I think was a very good discovery by ourselves to see he can be a conductor of an orchestra playing as a six and well done to Yusuf for the manner in which he has handled himself as a six.
“But reinforcement will always be important to have in a team of Chiefs’ calibre. That is why we brought Ox into the club, and we are going to have a strong team going forward,” he concluded.
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