Former Orlando Pirates coach Sergio Dos Santos, believes that Miguel Timm and Innocent Maela’s qualities were sorely missed by Pirates. This allowed Chiefs to be able to control the middle of the park and to pave the way for their 1-0 victory.
The defeat means that the Buccaneers have now only scored nine goals in 13 games so far this season, and are left nine points behind the Champions Mamelodi Sundowns.
“They did all the things they didn’t do against Sundowns, and also changed their pattern of play,” Sergio Dos Santos told This Is Football. Africa.
“Miguel Timm is the man that makes them tick in the midfield, in a very similar way Yusuf Maart does for Chiefs. Not quite involved from a playing point of view, but more in terms of them keeping shape, and keeping things tight. The Miguel Timm loss, that was very costly. Saleng out wide, didn’t get enough support or distribution, seldom got balls into areas that mattered, because Solomons and Kwinika were always in good positions to cover. As was the midfield of Chiefs. Crucially, Maela going off also added to the weakness of Pirates in their defensive mould, and it cost them. Because it prevented them from attacking from deeper areas which they normally do.
“We all know Erasmus is a tremendous player, and two or three times he showed that with little space, he can be exceptionally dangerous, twice he created shots, twice he was unlucky, twice Petersen could have been caught out,” continued Dos Santos.
“But they bottled him up, and forced him to drop into deeper areas, and seldom gave him space up top. He couldn’t get into dangerous areas, they stopped him, and that was a fantastic thing to do. When Dlamini came on he added a spark, and I was surprised that he did not start the match, especially without Timm. Because Dlamini has shown that he is a player that can make things happen” concluded the former midfield maestro.
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