Baxter’s aim is to steer clear of the pitfalls

SuperSport United coach Stuart Baxter (right) says his goal for the next month is for the side to get through games without “cracking up”.

Matsatsantsa a Pitori open their Caf Confederation Cup campaign away to Madagascar side Elgeco Plus FC tomorrow. United qualified for Africa’s second-tier club competition following their 2016 Nedbank Cup win over Orlando Pirates.

The challenge for SuperSport will be to balance a successful continental campaign with a chase for the title – they went into this weekend on top of the Absa Premiership.

“The games are coming thick and fast, our goals now are to get intelligence on our opponents, prepare properly, recuperate after the game and debrief properly. We will not get many proper training sessions now. It is going to be very important … analysing what we did right and what we did wrong, what we need to change, can we adjust our shape when we play against this or that team?

“The quality and the efficiency we can show will dictate if we can pick up more points (in the league) or we will struggle,” Baxter said.

SuperSport have a handful of key players sidelined by injuries, forcing to the Scot to rotate his squad. He does insist, however, that he aims to field a winning side in every outing.

“I will try to win the game (against Elgeco), I am going to try and put out a team that is competitive … for example, if I were to select Boafela Pule to start in Madagascar, it would be because I believe he is ready for that and he is the best man for the job.

“If Teboho Mokoena plays instead of Reneilwe Letsholonyane, it means Yeye needs a break because if he keeps on playing, he could get an injury. It won’t be because I feel sorry for Teboho, it would be because I think that would be the best chance of us winning. We will rotate and we will take the whole programme into consideration so people should not read too much into the selections,” added the coach.

In this weekend’s other Caf Confederation Cup preliminaryround, first-leg tie involving a South African team, Platinum Stars host HCB Songo of Mozambique at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace this evening.