Tinkler unhappy with City’s display against Pirates

Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler says he had to change formation numerous times following the pressure they suffered from Orlando Pirates in their DStv Premiership fixture.

But, the Cape side managed to walk out of Soweto with a point, as they held on to finish the game with 0-0 draw at the Orlando Stadium on Wednesday.

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Hugo Marques, the Cape City keeper, kept Bucs out from scoring, with the hosts creating a lot of chances, especially in the first half. Tinkler’s charges, meanwhile, looked threatening just before half-time, with Tashreeq Morris’ shot saved by Siyabonga Mpontshane from close range, while Thabo Nodada’s powerful strike also saw the Pirates’ keeper making a good save.

“Difficult one, to be honest, I thought we weren’t very good at all. I think collectively, we under performed in this game. Our plan and our strategy – we knew that they are going to build-up with the back three and the importance of looking to block the crosses from wide from either Deon Hotto or Bandile Shandu. But we didn’t apply that pressing strategy correctly. I mean the first 15 to 20 minutes, we were always late to every challenge and they found it very easy to play through us and create difficult situations for us in the final third. I wasn’t happy with that,” Tinkler reacted.  

“I changed our formation again in terms of our pressing strategy, it seemed to work slightly better, but there was a lot of space in between and still allowing players to receive (the ball) and turn, being very reactive defensively and having to soak up the pressure. We changed the formation in the last 15 minutes of the first half completely and I thought we kind of got back into the game and created two chances.”

City were quite lucky to walk away with a point though, which helped them to go one place higher on the league standings. They sit on eighth place on the league table with 27 points after 19 matches.