Arthur Zwane has confirmed that Dillon Solomons and George Matlou will come into his starting XI in order to give team more attacking impetus.
Both didn’t start in Amakhosi’s 1-0 opening day defeat to Royal AM, but Zwane want’s more creativity in his side.
He has explained that Solomons did enough to earn a start after coming off the bench against Royal AM, while Matlou will replace Cole Alexander.
“We saw a need to start with Solomons. When he came in [against Royal AM] he gave us that extra offensive part in the game,”Zwane told the club’s media team.
“Playing at home we are going to have to be on the front foot. He’s a good crosser of the ball, in terms of decision making he is 80-90% spot on.
“We are bringing in George in place of Cole, who will play as one of the eights. That will make our lives easier as well in terms of the creativity we need.
“We are giving him the freedom to go forward and to also help us when we lose the ball upfront, to apply pressure, and not to allow the opposition to get into our defensive half.”
Zwane also insisted his players responded positively in training despite the defeat but warned that Maritzburg are a difficult team to face.
“We’ve had just 24 hours of recovery time since our last game. In our preparations, we did a lot of dead ball situations and also worked on our tactical movements and approach, which is something we needed to cover because of the time frame,” he added.
“We are happy that the boys are responding positively. They look switched on again, which is very good.
“Going into the game we know we are playing against a difficult team. In the one game they’ve played we saw them play with three at the back and four in the middle and they come with a diamond shape 4-3-3 as well.
“They can easily change that to 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1. Knowing coach John Maduka is a creative coach, we’ve been preparing for that.”
The match will kick off at 19:30 at FNB Stadium.
