Miguel Cardoso explains Peter Shalulile tactical masterclass

The Namibian international won a penalty immediately after coming on for midfielder Sphelele Mkhulise before half-time and then went on to score twice as the log leaders thumped Arrows 4-0.

Sundowns were slow off the blocks but looked lively when Shalulile emerged from the bench as Cardoso switched his tactics.

The Portuguese mentor explains his decision.

"Sometimes results in the end when they get some expression obviously [are the] the result of the work of the players but also it doesn't mean that it was an easy game, it was not an easy game. It had its moments, we worked a lot in order to score after,” Cardoso said.

“First half, quite tricky, a different approach as we expected from our opponent, they changed the structure, they closed much more of the spaces and they were in the lower block than we expected.

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So, we had to adapt ourselves, it was difficult in the beginning, even without substitutions we tried immediately to change some things because we understood that we needed to progress more on the defensive line.

“When we changed Kodisang [Kobamelo] from the in-between lines to the right, so we tried to create immediately some different tactical approach but it was clear that we needed more visibility in the front.

“That's the moment we took Peter in the pitch, that worked out nicely because we started to be more aggressive and we scored and that gave us obviously an emotional positive moment to the halftime, where we organised ourselves regarding what's happening in the pitch and what we wanted for the second half."

Cardoso says he expects Mkhulise to understand the substitution did not reduce him to a bad player on the day.

"Any moment a player goes out it doesn't mean that he's bad on the match, 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,” the coach added.

“So, obviously during half time I told Pitso, look Pitso you came out not because you were playing bad but we needed to approach the game in a different way because if I knew that the approach from the opponent could be the one that was settled on, then probably I would have started the game in a different way.

“So, no, nothing in the work of Pitso. It was a decision that was absolutely cool."