New Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has discussed his changes of Neo Maema and Sphelele Mkhulise, and the impact of Kutlwano Letlhaku in his first game in charge.
The midfield duo were surprise starters in Cardoso’s first game in charge, a 1-0 win over Moroccan champions Raja CA, but were criticised by sections of supporters by their lack of influence on the game.
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Meanwhile, the teenage winger Lethaku came off the bench to register the assist for the winning goal from Iqraam Rayners, which was questioned by the media over what was seen to be able to pre-empt that sort of impact on the game.
“Raja as I said, came in a 4-4-2 structure and pressing high or pressing rather over our build-up let’s say, usually they used to defend in a 4-1-4-1 block so it allows different variants,” he said.
“It also always different variants of the build-up, so we had to reoriganise ourselves in ths second half considering that… how to have the possibility to go in front, in upper zones of the pitch.
“That is why we made that change, not because the player in this case Pitso, was not… or Neo after was not giving the performances but because we needed other things.”
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Cardoso insisted he only makes changes for tactical reasons and it would never be for a lack of commitment from anyone in the Masandawana squad.
“Most of my changes have to do with tactical analysis of managing the game, don’t expect… it’s very rare for me [to make other sort of changes] because I believe that we’ll always have players with commitment,” he added.
“So if there’s the commitment the things will come up with the right emotional approach, so I’m happy with that and happy that we changed the quality of the game, players reacted and Kutlwano also entered quite okay on the game.
“But I need to go in a deeper analysis of the game to have a clear perception on the individual things. Usually, it’s two things I don’t speak about; referees and individual performances of the players. Because I like to watch the details of the game [first] and be fair [in my assessments].”
Sundowns are now second in their group, level on five points with ASFAR after three games played in Group B after their win over Raja on Sunday afternoon.
