Worthwhile exercise
KOMPHELA: CHIEFS COACH HAPPY DESPITE THE DEFEAT TO CHIPPA UNITED He has something to work on ahead of the Super Sport opener.
Steve Komphela knows his team are in for a hard evening on Saturday when they host Super Sport United at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in the MTN8 (8.15pm).
Chiefs used Saturday’s Eastern Cape Premier’s Cup tie against Chippa United to prepare for their official season-opener.
With this game in mind, Komphela was looking to sharpen up his defence ahead of the start of the season and he was happy with the result despite losing 1-0 to Chippa at a packed Sisa Dukashe Stadium.
“We tried to see a lot of things … we had a couple of players we wanted to see,” said Komphela after the match. Chiefs started with Kgotso Moleko, Philani Zulu, Lorenzo Gordinho and Erick Mathoho in the back four.
“In the first half we had really good discipline at the back,” said Komphela.
“It was part of the training exercise where we told them to sit in a block and keep possession … and don’t allow them forward passes and see how quick we can come out (in attack),” he added.
Komphela was happy with the defensive shape but felt they could have done a little better on the counter-attack, which might be their strategy on Saturday.
“From that point of view defensively it looked okay although I thought we relied on the backpass when we needed to go through (in attack) and we didn’t.
“The second half was better. But there were a couple of players we wanted to see and we are satisfied with the exercise and we can go back and look at our notes and move on,” said Komphela.
The 50-year-old coach also tried different combinations in the middle and up front with the likes of Keagan Buchanan, Bongolethu Jayiya, Ryan Moon and Jonathan Philippe given a run ahead of the tried and trusted veterans like Bernard Parker, George Maluleka and Siphiwe Tshabalala.
For Saturday’s encounter, Itumeleng Khune is expected to return in goal while Ramahlwe Mphahlele may be preferred at rightback. Tshabalala and Maluleka could also be back to replace Buchanan and Jayiya while up front, Parker and Gustavo Paez could start ahead of Philippe and Moon.
In the first half we had really good discipline at the back