The issue of playing formations took centre stage at the launch of the Carling Black Label Champion Cup as sponsors sought to educate amateur champion coaches to think strategically when choosing their line-ups for the game between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs.
The Champion Cup, which is an annual off-season derby between the two Soweto giants, will be played at the mecca of South African football, the FNB Stadium on 29 July.
Now in its seventh edition, the Champion Cup is a uniquely South African-conceptualised soccer event which allows one spectator on each side of the divide to take charge of the coaching reins of their respective teams.
The amateur coaches take over the coaching reins from the usual team coaches and make the necessary substitutions with the help of the voting fans who choose the players to be substituted and the players who will replace them.
This is what necessitated the education on formations as part of the empowerment of the fans, two of whom will be chosen coaches before the game and will attend the training sessions leading up to match day.
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Former Chiefs and Pirates strikers, Shaun Bartlett and Marks Maponyane respectively, laboured to convince the would-be coaches which formations to use and why, between the well-known attacking and defensive formation of 4-4-2 and the offensive 3-5-2.
Bartlett and Maponyane emphasised the need to have the right calibre and strength of players for whatever formation was chosen for the team on the day, such as speedy wingers who can deliver quality crosses into the box and tall strikers for aerial balls or grass cutters for shorter strikers with nimble feet.
The 3-4-3 formation which places players higher up the pitch was described as a formation that allows for high-pressure football while the most popular attacking formation in modern football, 4-3-3, was considered the best formation as it allows for enough cover in the event of possible counter-attacks.
Speaking at the launch, Chiefs coach Steve Komphela and his Pirates counterpart Kjell Jonevret, both agreed that there was a need to ensure you had the right calibre of players to do the job.
Carling Black Label brand director Samori Gambrah said they were happy to have added the formation skill to empower the amateur coaches to be strategic in the selection of their starting line-ups.
The Buccaneers have won the cup four times since its inception in 2011 while Amakhosi have been victorious in two.
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