Cape Town City head coach Eric Tinkler says their Nedbank Cup opponents Royal AM are a very different team to the one they faced at the start of the season.
City face Royal AM at the Chatsworth Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with a spot in the last sixteen up for grabs.
Tinkler says they’ve been playing friendlies to prepare for the fixture, and over the past few weeks have faced Stellenbosch, Cape Town All Stars, Cape Town Spurs and Sudanese outfit Al Hilal in training games.
Having parted ways with Fagrie Lakay, Surprise Ralani, Abbubaker Mobara, Abdul Ajagun and Edmilson Dove, Tinkler says they had to sign a few new players, and so far they have brought in Venezuelan Darwin Gonzalez, Gambian Kajally Drammeh, Cameroonian Brice Ambina and local lad Mo May.
But Tinkler said it took time to get all their foreign signings to the country, and that allowed him to give opportunities to some young players at the club.
“Getting ever nearer to the Nedbank Cup game against Royal AM,” Tinkler told City’s media department.
“We’re into the final week of preparation for that game. We’ve managed to play five friendlies during this mid season break to get the guys ready and I think seen very a lot of positives from those friendlies.
“Obviously we were a little bit thin, because we lost quite a few players and the players that we were bringing in, it took a little bit of time for them to arrive.
“But we managed to fill the rest of the squad with some of the Diski players, the youth players, and some of them have stepped up really, really well. And ja, now we basically have everybody back as of today.
‘Obviously, we have suspensions in terms of Nodada and Makola, so they are not available for us, so obviously we need to make changes there, because both those players have been very influential in our midfield.
“So we’ll make one or two changes. And what we’ve been working on are those changes ahead of the game against Royal AM.”
Tinkler says their opponents, who they beat 2-1 back in August at the same venue, are a different team to back then.
“A very different team, to when we played them at the beginning of the season, play a different formation now than what they did then.
“Some new faces also for them, that is obviously where they’ve looked to bolster their squad. So it’s going to be a tough match away from home.
“But we go there with the belief and the confidence that we can see ourselves through into the next round.”
