Chiefs also have five draws and two defeats in Da Cruz’s first 10 matches, so he might argue that his side are not far from success, having missed chances that could have turned some of those draws into wins.
Among Chiefs coaches over the last decade or so, that is the joint-highest number of draws in their first 10 games, along with Steve Komphela, Giovanni Solinas and the co-coaching pair of Khalil Ben Youssef and Cédric Kaze.
The coach with the most wins in his first 10 games over this period also had the joint-highest number of defeats!
Ernst Middendorp won six and lost four of his matches when he took charge in the 2018/19 season for his second spell with the team.
The next-highest number of wins is four, achieved by Komphela, Ben Youssef/Kaze, Cavin Johnson and Nasreddine Nabi. The latter also had four defeats, though.
Da Cruz’s start is slightly better than those of Stuart Baxter (second spell) and Arthur Zwane, who both had W3 D4 L3 records, and identical to that of the much-maligned Solinas.
The coaches who struggled the most were Gavin Hunt and Molefi Ntseki (both W3 D3 L4).
