Ben Youssef shares how reduced workload is affecting bloated Chiefs squad

Kaizer Chiefs coach Khalil Ben Youssef has hinted that his big squad is suffering from reduced workload.

New signings Asanele Velebayi and Luke Baartman missed the game against Stellenbosch FC on Tuesday as they failed to make the matchday squad during their side’s 2-1 loss to Gavin Hunt’s team.

The two joined Chiefs after a long legal tussle as their ex-club Cape Town Spurs were contesting their departures as free agents but they were later cleared, giving Amakhosi the greenlight to register them.

Khalil Ben Youssef in trainning. Photo: Kaizer Chiefs

Ben Youssef not able to make everyone happy

However, since then, Velebayi has made six appearances while Baartman has played just 56 minutes with no start yet and when the 20-man squad was named for the Stellenbosch game, they were missing while Ethan Chislett made his debut after a seven-month wait.

Ben Youssef says his hands are tied when it comes to giving game time to his bloated squad as the Glamour Boys are now only left with the PSL to fight for.

“Unfortunately, in football, we can only use 11 players and we have nine substitutes, so if every press conference we discuss about the players who are not in the squad, it’s not the solution,” he said as per iDiski Times.

Asanele Velebayi and Luke Baartman Kaizer Chiefs — Asanele Velebayi and Luke Baartman. Photo: Kaizer Chiefs

“The only solution is if FIFA allowed us to play with 20 players, but we can’t find a solution for this.

“Why Ethan play? Why Ethan don’t play? Why Velebayi play? Why Baartman don’t play – how many players can we use? We have 38 players in the squad.”

Kaizer Chiefs out of all cup competitions

Inacio Miguel and Glody Lilepo of Kaizer Chiefs. Image: Kaizer Chiefs

Chiefs were knocked out of both the Carling Knockout and Nedbank Cup by Stellenbosch while Egyptian giants Zamalek eliminated them from the CAF Confederation Cup at the group stage.

That significantly reduced the workload for Chiefs after the club had recruited heavily with the hope of competing on multiple fronts particularly with eyes on the latter stages of the Confederation Cup.

Instead, they were left with only the league to fight for by mid-February and a number of players will be frustrated by lack of game time as Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze struggle to make everyone happy with few games available to play.