Kaizer Chiefs head coach Stuart Baxter’s return to Naturena has breathed new life into Khama Billiat, writes Nick Said.

It was always expected that the return of Stuart Baxter as coach at Kaizer Chiefs would see an uptick in the club’s fortunes this season and make them a competitive force after the horrors of the previous 12 months.


Baxter proved his acumen in his first spell with Chiefs, where he won two league titles in three years. He knows how to set up a team in the DStv Premiership to get results.

But to be successful this time around, he was always going to need his big-name players at Naturena to step up.
That sounds an obvious statement but it is also easier said than done.

The likes of Bernard Parker, Lebo Manyama and, especially, Khama Billiat had underperformed to such a degree that they were written off by many AmaKhosi fans.

But Baxter’s arrival lit a fuse, as did the creative spark of Keagan Dolly and in many ways Billiat has been the major beneficiary.


He is hitting top form again, playing the best football since he arrived at Chiefs three years ago in a somewhat controversial move from Mamelodi Sundowns, and driving the team forward to be contenders again.

‘He is looking sharp, enthusiastic. He is probably a better all-round player than I thought he would be, but that’s what happens when you work with players – you get to know them better,’ Baxter said about Billiat.


By the beginning of December, the playmaker and Dolly had netted 10 of Chiefs’ 17 league goals. Both had a number of assists under their belt too, emerging as two of the form players across the entire Premiership, let alone the Chiefs squad.


Before this season, it would have been fair to say that Billiat had not delivered on what was expected of him since he arrived at Chiefs. However, having a player like Dolly, that he can play off and with whom he can create a dynamic forward partnership, has brought out the best in him.

Creative talents like Billiat are only as good as those around them and Chiefs’ negative attacking approach, which included trying to hit Samir Nurkovic up front with long balls that bypassed the midfield, stifled his creativity.

That has changed with Baxter looking to keep the ball on the floor and asking Billiat and Dolly to pick their way through defences.
It was how the Zimbabwean played under Pitso Mosimane at Sundowns, where he showed arguably his best form of his career before this season. His best scoring campaign was in 2015-16 while in the colours of the Brazilians when he netted 13 times.

He has managed to reach double figures four times in all, including with Ajax Cape Town in 2011-12 (12 goals), Sundowns in 2014-15 (10) and 2016-17 (12).
He netted 25 goals in three seasons at Ikamva, a very healthy return for a young player thrust quickly into PSL action and told to run before he could really walk. 

He then managed 49 goals for Sundowns, just below an average of 10 goals per season in five years at Chloorkop. He then moved to Chiefs to get out of the shadow of the likes of Themba Zwane and, perhaps to an extent, even Dolly as well.


He moved to Amakhosi for a healthy pay packet but also the promise that he could be the ‘main man’ and have the potential to grab headlines every week.

It is the same reason Neymar left Barcelona for Paris St Germain in 2017, lest he should forever, or so he thought, be in the shadow of Lionel Messi.
But in almost three and a half seasons since arriving at Chiefs, Billiat has been below the standards he set at Ajax and Sundowns. However, given how well he has started this term he is clearly on an upward trajectory again.

Billiat’s Premiership Goal Return
:

2010-11: Ajax Cape Town – 9
2011-12: Ajax Cape Town – 8 
2012-13: Ajax Cape Town – 4
2013-14: Mamelodi Sundowns – 4
2014-15: Mamelodi Sundowns – 7
2015-16: Mamelodi Sundowns – 12
2016-17: Mamelodi Sundowns – 8 
2017-18: Mamelodi Sundowns – 8 
2018-19: Kaizer Chiefs – 5 
2020-21: Kaizer Chiefs – 3