Micho warns Pirates not to rest on laurels

There won’t be time any time to relax at Orlando Pirates, warned head coach Micho Sredojevic after using almost a totally different starting line-up in their 5-1 thrashing of Light-Stars in the Caf Champions League preliminary round, first leg at Orlando Stadium on Wednesday.

The Bucs coach made nine changes from the team that beat Kaizer Chiefs 2-1 in the semifinals of the Telkom Knockout, with only Jackson Mabokgwane and Marshall Munetsi surviving.

Despite using players who hardly get game time, Sredojevic was content with his charges’ performance and says it will keep every player on their toes and make everyone fight for a starting berth.

“The most important thing we are satisfied with is the fact that we have widened our pool of players that are competing for places in matches ahead of us. So widening that pool and giving game time to the rest of the players will provide a competitive aspect in the team … which will bring quality to the team,” Sredojecic explained.

“There is no relaxation, if you relax there are other players that are waiting for a chance to play. And these will help us in the bumper amount of matches we have ahead of us so we can juggle and look for rotation in the team and make sure our results and performances don’t go down.”

The Buccaneers started the tie on the back foot, having to come-back from a goal down despite creating several chances and dominating play. But, Sredojevic adds that he knew the Seychelles outfit wall would be brought crashing down after his side’s numerous goal attempts were foiled.

“We knew the time would come where we would crack them. We created some chances and missed them. We didn’t want to concede, it is negative, and we need to be clinical. We wanted to score more than five goals.”

The Buccaneers will now turn their attention to the Absa Premiership as they host Maritzburg United at the same venue tomorrow, before travelling to the Seychelles for the return match with Stars on December 5.

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