Questions has been raised on why it is taking Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane more time to drill a winning team than it took Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro.
Riveiro guided Pirates to win the MTN8 trophy in his first few months at the club, while Zwane has seemingly found the going tough, in the same period as a new head coach at Chiefs.
Soccer Laduma reported previously that the Chiefs hierarchy were not pleased with the team being bundled out of the MTN8 by AmaZulu in the semi-finals, a result which prolonged the club's wait for their first silverware since 2015 and have put measures in place to track the progress of the team under Zwane when the league resumes.
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However, one of the factors that could have delayed Amakhosi's progress under '10111' is that he has had to implement a new playing style and philosophy of keeping the ball on the ground. Chiefs, under former coaches such as Stuart Baxter and Ernst Middendorp, played a different type of football, dubbed 'helicopter style' because it relied on long balls and big centre forwards such as Samir Nurkovic getting in on the end of crosses and set-plays.
In contrast, Riveiro's game model is similar to how Pirates played under previous coaches Mandla Ncikazi and Fadlu Davids, with a predominant system of three centre-backs and wing-backs, playing from the back and building combinations.
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Middendorp has opened up on the criticism he received for implementing a 'helicopter style' at Amakhosi and says he's proud of it because during his time they had a clear identity.
"I said it's a huge compliment, they talked about me, the 'helicopter' style," the German tactician said in his recent interview on Marawa Sports World Wide.
"The helicopter style but I asked, the journalists asked me, 'What do you think (about) the style at Chiefs in the moment, what is really requested?'.
"I needed a number of minutes to continue this conversation because I said which style do we see at the moment? Do we see a certain style in the moment?" he quipped.
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"What we created, I think in 2019, we had a long discussion with Shaun Bartlett about it, we said, 'Okay, what is the way forward to break down a defence line?'
"You can go through with split passes, you can go around left flank or right flank and there is a third option, use the height. For this, of course you need the players who are confident, who really want to stay and take the battle against the centre-backs on the other side, sometimes two, sometimes three.
"And there is a certain clear direction and I take it as a compliment. In my time there was a very clear idea, very clear concept, to make it happen, with a bunch of players we had at that time," he added.
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