Cape Town City head coach Benni McCarthy says he is not surprised that Steve Komphela opted to take a more defensive approach against his side on Wednesday.

The Citizens suffered their first defeat in the Absa Premiership this season, after suffering a 2-0 defeat at the Cape Town Stadium.

McCarthy believes that veteran midfielder Teko Modise would’ve been the ideal candidate to unlock Chiefs defence after Amakhosi sat back and soaked up the City pressure.

‘Not surprised I guess, when you are under that much pressure and people are on your case, of course you need to take a different approach and they’ve clearly,’ McCarthy told the media.

‘They’ve watched us because they had a lot of free time to themselves while we were busy fighting it out so, I think they had enough time to see where things could go in their favour against us.

‘Yeah, losing Teko – you lose the one player who can really unlock that defence of theirs even though they’re sitting, because even in those little pockets, that’s where I wanted him to be playing to slot those little balls,’ he added.

‘But when you lose him, your whole dynamics change and them sitting back actually works in their favour, because now we have hard-working players, but we don’t have a real maestro that can find that pass that will kill their defence.

‘So their defence intercepted everything, just our final pass let us down really, and Khune, massive difference in their side, when you have such a goalkeeper, then your life is a bit easier,’ McCarthy concluded.

Cape Town City will be hoping to bounce back when they take on Orlando Pirates in the Absa Premiership on Tuesday.

The match at the FNB Stadium kicks off at 19:30.