It’s not such a big deal for Kaizer Chiefs players to be coming up against a familiar foe in coach Stuart Baxter, who is now working to bring a championship mentality to SuperSport United in a similar fashion to when he was with Amakhosi, winning an unprecedented two Absa Premiership titles in three years.
Reneilwe Letsholonyane returning to FNB Stadium in a different shirt for the first time in eight years, however, is a major talking point.
And the fact that he’s currently one of the best midfielders in the country highlights his likely influence in Wednesday’s game even more.
Yeye rejected a new contract at Chiefs at the end of last season to start fresh elsewhere, and Baxter was only too happy to have him following their time together at Naturena between 2012 and 2015.
Letsholonyane won consecutive Man of the Match awards nearly three weeks ago before SuperSport hit a bump in the road with a 1-1 draw away to Premier League rookies Baroka FC on Saturday.
While Chiefs are struggling to ‘get the ball into the back of the net’, in the words of midfielder George Maluleka, Letsholonyane has contributed with two goals and two assists towards the club’s 15-goal tally in the league so far.
It’s been so easy for Amakhosi fans to lament losing a player of that quality, while criticising the current crop of midfielders, including Maluleka, for lacking Letsholonyane’s bite.
“Luck hasn’t been on our side and we are still looking to turn the corner,” said Maluleka, who will be one of Chiefs’ attack-minded players in trying to derail SuperSport Wednesday night.
“They have done very well and we know the philosophy under Baxter.
“We know that they have a quality player in Yeye and I can’t say anything bad about him or try to take anything away from his performances.
“At the moment he is on form and I can’t say how I am going to stop him, but if we do well on the day as a team that’s out there, I think we have a good chance against them.”
While SuperSport only returned home with a point away at plucky Baroka, Chiefs had an even tougher assignment against reigning champions Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld and came out second best in a 2-1 defeat that’s placed coach Steve Komphela under the microscope yet again.
Amakhosi were enjoying an eight-game unbeaten run until it came to a halt against Free State Stars in the Telkom Knockout quarter-finals on November 6 and they were denied an opportunity to bounce back by Sundowns on Saturday afternoon, taking the gloss away from the unbeaten run, which suddenly turned into a winless streak of four matches.
“It’s always disappointing to lose or to drop points,” Maluleka said.
“I think the difference was getting the ball into the back of the net. We’ve had a couple of draws and those are games we could have won easily.
“But there are still a lot of positives that came out in some of the games.
“It’s not done and dusted, but there’s a lot of work to be done still.”
Follow Mazola Molefe on Twitter@superjourno
The Star