Gaston Sirino was an unused substitute against Richards Bay.
Photo by Alche Greeff/Gallo Images
Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi has explained why they could not risk fielding attacking player Gaston Sirino in their victory over Richards Bay on Wednesday night.
Amakhosi got back to winning ways at Peter Mokaba Stadium, registering a 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Wandile Duba and Ashley du Preez.
Sirino was an unused substitute against the Natal Rich Boyz and probably would have been given a few minutes were it not for the red card picked up by Reeve Frosler early in the second half.
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“He is coming from an injury. Even the tournament that we played in PE he was injured. We were planning to give him some minutes during the game, but given the circumstances with the red card, we could not risk it, but we will probably see him in the next games,” Nabi told media at Peter Mokaba Stadium after the game.
The red card meant that Amakhosi had to change shape and bring on players to deal with the crosses and long balls that the visitors were putting into the box. Nabi was pleased with the contribution made by the players he brought on in the second half, as they held on for a much needed victory.
“Most of the changes were not planned. They were a necessity because of the circumstances of the game because of the red card in the first five minutes (of the second half) and then you need to put (Dillan) Solomons as a right back. Then after we changed our setup, going into a back five when we introduced TT (Thatayaone Ditlhokwe) and then (Samkelo) Zwane in the midfield and at the end (Cristian) Saile because we wanted to block the width. We noticed they had height in attack and there were a lot of crosses and long balls into the box. We needed to put people in who could deal with that. We believe the changes helped us to get the three points.”
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One thing Nabi will be working on as they prepare for their next match, against Royal AM, is being able to kill off opponents when they are there for the taking.
“It’s true we could have ended the game. We had two or three chances to make it 3-0 and in these cases when you don’t kill the game, you keep the opponents alive and you saw what happened at the end of the game because we were a little bit under pressure. It’s true that maybe it’s a little bit of a lack of concentration on those clear opportunities or maybe a lot of over-confidence, but today we feel that we need to encourage our players because the most difficult thing in football is to create opportunities. We now need to figure out how to kill it when we have the opportunity.”
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