Kaizer Chiefs caretaker coach Cavin Johnson has explained why he opted to make four changes for his Soweto Derby line-up and also discussed the late appearance by Mfundo ‘Obrigado’ Vilakazi.
Amakhosi lost Saturday’s Soweto Derby 3-2 despite leading twice, which saw them miss out on moving into second place.
Ahead of the match, Johnson raised a few eye brows by making four changes to the line-up that beat Golden Arrows in midweek 1-0.
“I don’t think there were many changes, because when you look at it, I’m looking at in my head and maybe you are different to me,” he said.
“When I’m coaching the team, I see this one’s ready, that one’s ready, let them play. It’s not what did I pick last week and what did I pick this week? No. You understand what I’m saying?
“And the changes came about purely because of Keegan [Dolly] got injured in the game and [Njabulo] Ngcobo was a bit of a tactical change. And you seen that Zitha comes in the centre and Reeve we thought we could use Reeve a lot better as an overlapping full-back instead of Zitha. He did it a little bit but he also came out.
“And yeah, sometimes some of the changes didn’t work but the change with Mdantsane worked because he created the first call and Mmodi should have scored the other goal. But he was part of the creation of I think both calls be scored.
“So yeah, he done a good job. And like I said earlier on, when you have 30 players they should all be ready to play in time.”
Johnson also briefly touched on Vilakazi’s late substiution to make his first derby appearance.
“We almost did it, it was just a bit a bit late,” he admitted.
“But he did get a bit of the derby. That’s the way football goes.”
