Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane has defended his decision to play Percy Tau over Luis Miquissone in their defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns in Cairo on Saturday evening.
Sundowns stunned the African champions in the Cairo International Stadium with Thapelo Morena’s late strike securing their first-ever win over the Egyptian giants in their home country.
However, Mosimane was questioned by the media for not using Mozambique international Luis Miquissone – who netted a stunning brace in their mid-week 4-0 thrashing over Misr Lel Mekassa in the Egyptian Premier League.
“It’s easy to say that, if Percy Tau scored the goal that I think is not offside you would not ask me why I put Percy Tau in,” he said after the game.
“If I didn’t put him in, you would ask me why you don’t play Percy Tau when you need a goal and you have a good player like Percy Tau on the bench.
“Hussein also scored and he was on the bench, but you’re right, it’s a fair question but it’s the life of a football coach – if you keep Tau on the bench and lose, you get asked why. If you play Percy and he scores.
“Whichever situation I’ll get asked why you don’t have Miquissone, he’s coming up slowly. And in a game like this, you need experienced players.”
On some of his other tactical decisions that were probed about, he defended his decision not to take off defensive midfielder Hamdy Fathi in order to find the winning goal whilst the score was still 0-0 in the latter stages.
“They always played with the counter-attack and I needed Hamdy to be there because I always knew they would come out on the break,” Mosimane explained.
“If I have Maaloul on the other side and Hany there, you’re opening yourself and you can’t say Maaloul didn’t play well, he played very well. We thought we’d score from a Maaloul cross, it was coming even in the first half.
“But that is the price you pay for not scoring early, but the goalkeeper [Kennedy Mweene] made a brilliant save there. It’s part of life, it’s sad but that’s the way it is.”
Ahly will face Al-Merrikh next at the Al Ahly Stadium in Al Salam City next weekend as they look to bounce back after their first home defeat in the completion in six years.
