Give Nasreddine Nabi quality players – Teko Modise

Ahead of the Nedbank Cup final between Amakhosi and their bitter rivals Pirates in Durban on Saturday afternoon, all eyes are on Nabi with his future also a key focus going into the final weeks of the season.

With Chiefs likely to finish outside the top eight, winning the cup could potentially throw Nabi a lifeline.

But Modise believes strongly that the Tunisian is not the only reason why The Glamour Boys have struggled.

"As much as we say that coach Nabi possibly doesn't have time, but does he have the quality though? Because nobody wants to speak of the quality of Kaizer Chiefs players, it's always the coaches,” Modise said.

“Why the coaches keep rotating, but the players are still the same? Then, who is the problem? Because when you want to win, you must look at Kaizer Chiefs and be honest about who they are supposed to be competing with.

“They are supposed to be competing with Mamelodi Sundowns or Orlando Pirates and I'm not talking about competition in terms of trophies and all that, from a player to player.

“The entire existence of Kaizer Chiefs, it always has superstars and quality but now you start questioning yourself that, okay, if we are saying the coach now is still trying to figure out the synergy and the combination with four games to go, that's concerning because you had preseason to do that, you had friendlies in between.  

“At Pirates, you always know who's gonna play and even though you know that lineup, when you look at it, it's a lineup that is tried and tested and was believed in, and is kept on going and winning and always had that belief."

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The ex-Bafana Bafana international insists that Nabi has been unfortunate with injuries in his squad too but put emphasis on underperforming players.

"You won't have trophies if there's inconsistency in your lineup. Yes, you might win cups but not the league, not the biggest cups, you can't because you need consistency because when things are tough, I need to know that Itu [Itumeleng Khune] behaves how without even having to speak.

“It will be 40 to 60 000 capacity at Moses Mabhida, do you think there's time for Itu to tell me that there's men coming? I won't even hear him but that's the synergy that you build from off-season, that's the synergy that you build during the game in difficult situations, understanding the behaviour.

“Knowing your teammate, that when it's not his day, this is how he behaves, and I strongly believe that coach Nabi, at some point, he found that, but he's been so unlucky because he never really has the strongest team to be able to field, it's always injuries. He's always struggling with those types of injuries when the team is starting to click, and yes, we might say maybe the goalscoring department but guys, why are we still having wingers that are playing 40 games or 50 games with two goals and then we are saying they are playing well, where?"