Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane has explained why he didn’t take off any of his defenders despite his side playing against 10 men for over 30 minutes.
The Amakhosi dropped points against TS Galaxy, who extended their unbeaten run against the Glamour Boys to five matches.
Chiefs were unable to make their numerical advantage count after Marks Munyai was sent off after 55 minutes, with Zwane insisting he didn’t want to risk being caught out by a long ball
“We took the foot off the paddle after they were one man down,” he told SuperSportTV after the match.
“We thought the game was going to be easy and we needed a little bit of creativity, that’s why I had to bring in George [Matlou] because now we were all playing the crosses and I told them the only time Sekgota goes wide is because we want to stretch them.
“We needed a little bit of movement there in between the central defender, we didn’t do that quite often. Now we resorted crossing, but we knew they were adding numbers to defence. There was no way they were going forward. But we had to be cautious to not allow them to catch us on a break-up attack.
“So we easily maybe take one of the defenders out and bring a midfielder, offensive player, maybe even striker. But we had to be cautious because now they resorted to long balls and we wanted to win all the long balls with Siya, Zitha and Dove. So we had to push Hlanti forward to play a little bit lopsided because Siya couldn’t go.
“For me second half wasn’t good enough, it could’ve been better. We piled a lot of pressure on them, we could’ve scored one with a header I think, we missed the target. Poor decision-making on our end, it could’ve been much better.
“But I cannot fault the effort of the guys, I think from first half I didn’t see them having a shot at goal, even first half. But it’s worrying factor that we didn’t score.
“I thought after scoring two goals in Polokwane we broke the ice, we come here at least get one. The good thing is we kept a clean sheet. But should’ve scored at least one goal based on the chances we created.”
The goalless draw saw Chiefs remain behind rivals Orlando Pirates on 28 points. They will return to action on Friday when they will face Maritzburg United in the Nedbank Cup at Harry Gwala Stadium.
