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Comparisons have been drawn between Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane and his Orlando Pirates counterpart Jose Riveiro, with both in their first season at their respective clubs.
Pirates, the current MTN8 champions, have reached a second cup final and look set to finish runners up in the DStv Premiership, indicating their Spanish mentor has had a better first year.
But Zwane, after being eliminated from the Nedbank Cup semifinals on Saturday Riveiro’s charges, argued the Buccaneers had a more settled squad.
"Obviously the only difference when it comes to that is us bringing in new players, that needed to gel. Us also working on our chemistry and understanding and when you look at Pirates how many players that they brought this season," he said.
The reality is Pirates signed 12 players, while there were 10 new arrivals at Naturena.
Zwane says injuries disrupted their progress.
"Already they had a core. With us, we didn't have a core. We had to start afresh. When you look at players that were part and parcel of the team this season, some of them did not play. Taking into consideration that most of our key players, for me very key players that could have played a huge role, even in today's game and many other games that we ended up losing, they were out injured," the coach explained.
Chiefs appointed Zwane as a permanent coach on a three-year contract at the beginning of the season, expecting him to end the club’s trophy drought.
The coach says he spent the bulk of the campaign using players out of position.
"Those who were given the opportunity gave their best and it wasn't to be. So, that's the difference we had a lot of injuries in our case to key players and now we had to chop and change the team at some point. We played with a makeshift defense just to make sure that we consolidate and we don't drop more points."
