The central pair of Lucky Lekgwathi and
Ayanda Ngcaba had a fair game but lacked adequate pace to close down Khama
Billiat intelligent runs. Billiat should have scored avalanches of goals as
they gave him sufficient space to score goals. The miscommunication between Lekgwathi
and Ngcaba is still a major concern at the back. Lekgwathi should have played
as sweeper and Ngcaba as central defender but Lekgwathi was doing most of
chasing despite lacking good pace to close down the fast Rodney Ramagalela and Billiat.
Thabo Matlaba had a brilliant first half with
his offensive moves but quite second half and never connected well with
invisible Daine Klate who had a horrible second half as passenger in the train.
Matlaba slow pace when tracking backing from attack was easily exposed by the
intelligent Elias Pelembe who played some dangerous balls in the box. Pelembe
enjoyed pouncing on Matlaba defending errors.
Lehlohonolo Masalesa lacked adequate pace to
effectively control the engine room. He gave Sundowns adequate space to
penetrate the defence. He never combined well with Oupa Manyisa who blew hot
and cold in the game and also caught out of position many times. Manyisa failed
to adapt to his old role in the engine room as he was played as behind striker
in many of the past games.
Pirates engine room was easily dismantled by
Sundowns creative player Teko Modise and hard-man Hlompo Kekana. I doubt if we
still going to have effective Manyisa without Andile Jali. Ace Manyisa
hibernated in the game without any serious impact.
The wing play was ineffective with less
contribution to the game especial Klate whilst Masuku had brilliant first half
with good crosses in the box. Tlou
Segolela deserves a chance to bolster the wing play. Klate had one of the worst
games by his standard.
Sifiso Myeni was nowhere to be seen in the
second half. He never made any impact until he was replaced by Kermit Erasmus.
Myeni intelligent runs cutting the field was non-existent in the second half.
He failed to combine well with Helder Pelembe. It was a game of
misunderstanding between Pelembe and Myeni.
Pelembe was never given adequate service
upfront as Pirates service delivery upfront was too predictable. They played
many aerial balls despite that Pelembe was sandwiched by two tall defenders
Alje Schut and Thabo Nthethe. Pirates should have change the modus Operandi of
balls supply upfront by playing balls on the ground to accommodate Pelembe who
has excellent ball playing skills but struggled aerial to challenge Sundowns
defence.
My view about the caretaker coach Eric Tinker
is that Pirates is too big for him. He deployed ineffective Roger de Sa system
again by weakening striking force when he started.
By
Owen Mundalamo
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