Chippa United coach Kwanele Kopo has explained his decision to substitute midfielder Andile Jali at half time against Orlando Pirates.

The Chilli Boys got their Betway Premiership off to a slow start after suffering a 2-1 defeat to the Buccaneers at the Orlando Stadium on Wednesday.

Although veteran midfielder Jali opened the scoring in the 22nd minute against his former club, the veteran midfielder was taken off at half time and Kopo explained his reasoning for that.

“For the first 20 minutes they had a problem with us and you could see that in many moments we came out of the press, it’s just in the final third that we were not really clinical, that’s what we were looking to do and that’s why Andile, with his experience, ability to play [scored],” Kopo told SuperSport TV after the game.

“And after we scored, the last 15 minutes of the first-half, Pirates picked up that we had a block and brought Van Rooyen in, to try and neutralise us and we struggled a little bit to adjust to that, hence we struggled.

“But also Andile [Jali] had a problem with his hamstring, we made a gamble to start him, he hasn’t trained for three days this week but we needed someone of his character, experience and technical ability,” Kopo said.

“But once we lost him at half-time, the adjustment to create the block…I think we ran out of legs. It’s a reflection of a team that is not match-fit at the moment because of a struggle of [not] getting friendly games in pre-season.

“But I think we showed a different Chippa team, a possession-based and very tactical Chippa team and I’m very proud of the players and we can only build from this.”