FRINGE PLAYERS TO TAKE ON ROLLERS
Baxter adjusts for CAF
KAIZER Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter will rotate a few players for tomorrow night’s CAF Champions League preliminary rounds tie against Township Rollers at FNB Stadium, with new striker David Zulu likely to start.
Zulu was given his debut coming off the bench in the 86th minute of Chiefs ’ 0-0 Absa Premiership draw against Bloemfontein Celtic at Free State Stadium on Wednesday.
Chiefs would ordinarily be expected to make fairly light work of Botswana champions Rollers, and Baxter will begin the task of managing his player personnel with an eye to balancing Amakhosi ’ s league title aspirations against competing in continental competition.
“’I ve not done any homework on Rollers yet, to be honest, ” the coach said.
“I didn ’ t want to distract from this [game against Celtic] – it was an important one to get out of the blocks again with, and not lose it. I think we ’ re not going to weaken the team too much. We ’ ll make a few changes. I threw David Zulu on against Celtic because I thought it was a 10-minute cameo where he doesn ’ t have to worry too much about the shape of the team. That is the sort of rotation I think we ’ ll be doing.”
Fringe-players such as Siyabonga Nkosi and Siphelele Mthembu can also expect a run.
Rollers ’ appearance at FNB will see one-time Mamelodi Sundowns star Manqoba “Shakes ” Ngwenya make a brief return to SA football.
The big, much-skilled playmaker has been trying to resurrect his career at 33 after fading into obscurity in SA with stints at Mpumalanga Black Aces, Thanda Royal Zulu and Alexandra United.
Chiefs meet Rollers, who arrived in SA yesterday, in the return leg in two weeks.
If Chiefs beat Rollers they will have two more rounds to play to reach the group stage.