Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Sphelele Mkhulise was taken off after only 38 minutes of Sunday’s 4-0 win for the champions over Lamontville Golden Arrows in Atteridgeville, but the substitution was no reflection on his performance but rather a tactical move, said coach Miguel Cardoso.
With Sundowns struggling to set up chances, as Arrows pressed high and played with a low block, Cardoso took out Mkhulise for Peter Shalulile, who went on to score twice.
“When a player goes out it doesn't mean that he's having a bad match,” explained the Sundowns coach.
“It's a tactical approach and the values of the team should be much stronger than individual values. That's how I approach these things.”
Cardoso said he had told the player at halftime the change did not reflect on his performance.
“I told Pitso, ‘look, you came out not because you were playing bad, but we needed to approach the game in a different way’. If I knew that the approach from the opponent would be the one that they started with, probably I would have started the game in a different way. So it’s nothing to do with the work of Pitso. It was a decision, taken absolutely coolly, regarding tactics.”
Cardoso also said that Mkhulise, who had been the subject of some transfer speculation in the media, was going nowhere.
“Pitso is a player of this club. We like him so much. We trust him. He has been playing in the team. There was also speculation regarding Peter (Shalulile) and transfer talks. There was nothing, nothing.”
Sundowns’ win put them six points clear at the top of the Betway Premiership but despite the scoreline, the coach said the clash with Arrows had been hard.
“It was not an easy game. It had its moments. We worked a lot in order to score after a first half which was quite tricky with a different approach from the one we expected from our opponent.
“They changed the structure, they closed much, much more the spaces, and they were in a lower block than we expected. So, we had to adapt ourselves. It was difficult in the beginning. Even without making substitutions, we tried immediately to change some things, because we understood that we needed to address the defensive line.
"But it was clear that we needed more progressivity in the front. That's the moment we put Peter (Shalulile) on the pitch, and it worked out nicely, because we started to be more aggressive and we scored, and that gave us, obviously, an emotionally positive boost to the halftime break where we re-organised ourselves, regarding what had happened and what we wanted for the second half,” Cardoso added
“I think we didn't start the second half as aggressive as we could have. But then we scored a second goal, and I decided to re-balance the team again, playing with three midfielders and from there we blocked the game. It was very beautiful the way we finished with a very high quality of football. So, I’m very happy for the effort of the boys, hard work from everybody regarding the tactical approach to the game. It’s mission accomplished,” he said.