Johnson explains Chiefs’ tactical tweak after Msimango’s red card

Kaizer Chiefs interim coach Cavin Johnson has explained his tactical tweak after Given Msimango’s red card against Mamelodi Sundowns.

Amakhosi suffered a humiliating 5-1 loss against Sundowns in the DStv Premiership on Thursday night at FNB Stadium. The win against Chiefs handed Masandawana their seventh successive league title with six games to spare.

During the mouth-watering league clash, Chiefs defender Msimango was sent off in the 19th minute for a tackle on Lucas Ribeiro to deny Sundowns an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

With Chiefs reduced to 10-man, Cavin Johnson stuck with the team that started the match without making a defensive substitution to fill Msimango’s position.

WHY JOHNSON MADE NO SUBSTITUTION AFTER MSIMANGO’S RED CARD

While the decision proved costly after the Soweto giants conceded five goals, Johnson says there was no need to bring in a centre-back as Zitha Kwinika, who was already on the field, plays the position.

“It was not a matter of bringing in another centre-back; we had Zitha playing right-back, and he can also play as centre-back,” Johnson said.

“We put Zitha at centre-back, we put [Yusuf] Maart at right-back then we had [Edson] Castillo and [Siyethemba] Sithebe in the middle.

“So we were more than happy with that as you could see the whole first-half, we were more than comfortable and we were able to stop them from playing and stop them from scoring. We were okay, I thought we held it very well.”

Asked if his side was exposed in the second half, the former Al Ahly assistant coach argued that they presented opportunities to Sundowns.

“When you look at the goals they scored, the first goal is the Achilles heel that kills my players, because it’s not a goal, it’s an out ball for Kaizer Chiefs.

“And we had a moment going forward and our players are all upfront, we had the momentum going forward but the out ball killed us. After that like is said, my players backed off which is not normal and I thought they backed off at the wrong time, that gave Sundowns the opportunity to come at us.”

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