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Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has explained his decision to trial midfielder Bathusi Aubaas in an unfamiliar role.
The Portuguese mentor included Aubaas in the matchday squad for the first time since November last year, before redeploying him in a different position during Wednesday night’s 2-1 Nedbank Cup victory over Gomora United.
Cardoso admits the move was largely experimental.
"It's something we tried several times in training, and I think he didn't do badly. The question is how you give him the ball. If you pay attention around the 25th minute, or maybe later, we inverted Aubaas into the middle and opened Kutlwano on the right so that we could get more fluidity...
"Obviously, I don't expect Aubaas to be a one-on-one full back like Thapelo [Morena], but I expect the team to change flanks very quickly and can give him balls to cross into the box. You saw his service into the box," said Cardoso
The coach added that it was only natural to substitute Aubaas given he’d asked him to perform an unusual task.
"Sometimes when a coach takes a player off, it's not becasue he is bad, and I told him that there was nothing to to point out. I told him I put him in a position that was not comfortable for him, and he did well. I then took him off because I wanted more one-on-one situations, and obviously Kutlwano can do that. As a result, we scored, so I think we did well anyway."
Cardoso applied the rotation system to manage the load on regular players but quickly turned to them when Gomora levelled matters.
He says going to extra-time would have been catastrophic.
The Sundowns mentor revisited their recent trip to Rwanda to explain just how demanding their schedule has been.
"The coach really has to manage all of this. This is sometimes information the fans don't have. They think its spontaneous – that we just arrive here, and then we arrive in Rwanda and nothing has happened. That's not the case. There are large volumes of things happening and alot of emotional questions, as you can imagine, but the attitude has been very good in general."
