Kaze and Ben Youssef get praise for lifting Chiefs – ‘They might challenge Baxter’s record’

Kaizer Chiefs coaches Khalil Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze have been lauded for turning around the fortunes of the club.

Chiefs are on a three-game winning run since the year started, having beaten Golden Arrows and Marumo Gallants in the PSL as well as Zambia’s ZESCO United in the CAF Champions League.

In all the three matches, the Glamour Boys have won 1-0 and not looked troubled in defence, taking their tally to 30 points in the league, just two behind leaders Mamelodi Sundowns from 15 games.

Amakhosi’s turnaround lauded

Football analyst and coach Grandt de Smidt believes Chiefs are onto something and has praised Kaze and Ben Youssef for a major turnaround given they have already surpassed what they had achieved by the halfway mark last season.

“They have got 30 points from 15 games. The previous years, it was 25, 24, 23 points with three seasons and last season, they had 20 points from 14 points at the midway point because of the Royal AM thing,” De Smidt said on SoccerBeat.

“So they are getting a lot more points, 25-30 per cent more points than the previous coach was getting. You have to give them more credit for that [because] they have turned Chiefs around.”

Can Chiefs break clean sheets record?

Another highlight of Chiefs’ season has been their great defensive record as they have recorded 11 clean sheets, the most in the PSL and De Smidt thinks they could even go on to beat the record of 19 set by Stuart Baxter’s team.

“They might even challenge Baxter’s record of 19 clean sheets. Still 15 games to go and they are only on 11, if they keep nine more, they get to 20 and beat Tsepo Masilela’s defence,” he added.

Chiefs’ improved form has got fans dreaming of a title win for the first time since 2015 which would be a major turnaround for a team that finished 10^th and ninth in the last two seasons respectively.