Khalil Ben Youssef riled up by criticism of Kaizer Chiefs goal scoring troubles
By
Chad Klate
24th February 2026
Kaizer Chiefs co-coach Khalil Ben Youssef did not take kindly to a question by a journalist suggesting the coaching staff's apparent struggles to solve the team's goal scoring crisis.
Despite their upward trajectory this season, Chiefs have been found wanting in front of goal, with just 35 goals scored in 27 matches in all competitions, as compared to local rivals Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates with 57 and 64 goals in 30 and 31 matches respectively.
Asked why their troubles have taken this long to sort out, Ben Youssef, who took over the Amakhosi reins alongside Cedric Kaze from Nasreddine Nabi early on in the campaign, did not take kindly to the suggestion the technical staff are failing in their duties.
"Did you think that being a football coach is an easy job? If it was easy anyone could have the job and any team can score and any team can win, that's the difficulty in football,” Ben Youssef said.
“How you beat teams, that you can defend and can concede goals and then you make players to score and create opportunities to score. For us the most important thing is the performance of the team, when you perform and you create opportunities, that's our job.
“If it is like you say that it's our job, it's not easy like that. Anyone can do the job, the solution is to continue to work in training sessions, if you have another solution, advise us. If you create an opportunity and you miss your chance, what can we do?"
Further to the point, Chiefs were also recently bundled out of the CAF Confederation Cup group stages on goal difference by Al Masry, with the Tunisian reflecting on their journey.
"I think it was a disappointing result, we went to Egypt to come back with a qualification. Unfortunately we are the only team that reached 10 points in all the groups in CAF or Champions League,” the coach added.
“We are out of the competition but for us we have to learn. We have to learn the importance of how many goals we score and how many goals we concede because we are out of the competition because we didn't score many goals or we didn't concede less on goals.
“So, now it's done, we are back in the PSL, we have to continue to fight."
