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Steve Komphela admits Kaizer Chiefs defensive concerns

Amakhosi's defensive frailties were exposed as they went down 2-0 at the break. However, Komphela's men regrouped to take a 3-2 lead in the second half but Siyanda Xulu's own-goal with seven minutes left sent the game into extra time.

Chiefs won the top eight cup without conceding a goal last season and Komphela admits that he will take stock of his team's performance after the win.

“What's going to make good cover for such concerns will be the result,” Komphela said after his first official win as a Chiefs coach.

“It will maybe give us an opportunity to be critical in our own analysis at the back of a positive result because you tend to be careful when dealing with players you meet the next day about the mistakes they committed if the result was not good, so you have to be strategic in outlining them.

“For now you can a be a little bit aggressive and we mentioned it in the dressing room that they were more soft with respect to how Maritzburg performed, they gave us a great game, they played good football and attacked nicely. They defended properly and you can see this is a team that has brains.”

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Komphela questioned a few schoolboy errors from his somewhat makeshift back four as Xulu partnered Ivan Bukenya in the centre with Tsepo Masilela and Siboniso Gaxa the two survivors from last season's stingy defence.

“With all that, we say we shouldn't have [conceded three goals], the first goal was a counter-attack and the centre-back's positioning, you could put question marks there. Who was putting pressure on the ball and who was giving depth in defence? That is something to be looked at,” Komphela added.

“The second goal as well, an error square-pass from Yeye and Tsepo tried to get the ball and it went for a corner and Teyise scores, where were we defensively? That's something to look at.

“The third goal as well, [lack of] communication, two centre-backs are going for the ball and keeper coming out. Those are things you go back and analyse because they are concerning.

“I don't know when last Chiefs conceded three goals and that's something to look at but the beauty of it is that we scored five goals.”

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