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Tembo explains Phala substitution

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Thuso Phala

SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo has explained the reason behind wing Thuso Phala’s first-half substitution in the 3-1 loss to Orlando Pirates.

Goals by Vincent Pule, Thembinkosi Lorch and Ben Motshwari saw Milutin Sredojevic’s side overcome a stubborn Matsatsantsa outfit to register their third league victory of the campaign to move them into third position on the Absa Premiership table.

With the score 1-0 in favour of Pirates, Tembo opted to bring on Fagrie Lakay in place of Phala, revealing that it was a tactical decision.

‘In the first half on that side, [Paseka] Mako was going forward, [Innocent] Maela was also going forward and Thuso [Phala] was not tracking back,’ he said in post-match comments.

‘If he could’ve given us something going forward, he lost possession a couple of times so it was just a tactical decision to take him off,’ he added.

The Buccanneers netted two decisive goals in the final 10 minutes of the clash and Tembo believes that his side struggled to cope with Pirates’ crosses into the area.

‘We had two strikers. Bradley [Grobler] and James [Keene] could play off each other and also Evans [Rusike] and Fagrie giving us pairs on the sides especially on second balls, we managed to get behind them a couple of times.

‘We looked like we were back in it after we got the equaliser but throughout the 90 minutes, we couldn’t deal with the crosses. We could’ve done better defensively in trying to stop crosses,’ he concluded.

SuperSport’s next league assignment sees them do duty against Black Leopards on Sunday, while Pirates clash with Cape Town City at the Orlando Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Photo: Gallo Images