Zwane using Dolly differently

Under Baxter, the Westbury-born lad played almost entirely in one position: as a right winger in various

shapes, from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1 to 3-42-1. Of course, he wasn’t hugging the touchline but instead coming into the inside right ‘half space’ to pick up the ball and bend through passes for runners like Billiat and Bernard Parker.

That role suited Dolly down to a tee. He could get between the lines where fullbacks struggled to mark him, whilst also being free when play was switched. He could drive diagonally straight at goal or get his head up early for killer passes. It also allowed him to cut inside onto his favoured left foot to take shots. Down the right flank, he formed a very good partnership with Njabulo Blom, who would overlap from right back as Dolly came inside. There was a very good understanding between the duo and Blom was capable enough defensively to deal with wingers if Dolly was slow to get back to help.

Zwane has changed all that. The 29-year-old has been used as a central number 10 or even as a leftsided number eight in a 4-3-3 in several matches under the new coach. There have been times where he is

seen dropping very deep to get the ball off the back four and this puts him too far from goal to maximise his creativity. There have been plenty of games too where Zwane used three central midfielders, so Dolly was in the front trio, but he was used down the left against Sundowns, where he is much less effective. Against Gallants, he gave the ball away constantly in these tighter areas and seemed on a different wavelength to his teammates. It’s not a shock he was dropped for the home match against

SuperSport United.