Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane has emphasized the importance of forward Ashley Du Preez in their setup after he missed two clear chances against Orlando Pirates.
Read: Why Pirates Did Not Turn Up Against Chiefs?
Du Preez had two one-on-one chances against Pirates in the first stanza but was twice denied by goalkeeper Siyabonga Mpontshane. But Zwane says he was happy with his overall performance, as his speed was important in their game plan of hitting the Buccaneers on counter-attacks.
"Apart from the chances that he missed, he had a good game you know when we were defending he was part of the team, he helped us," Zwane told members of the media in a press conference.
"Like I said, the plan was to force Pirates to go out wide and we forced them obviously to play the ball there where we know we trap them and when we regain possession, they going to have to obviously deal with us.
"And we've got the speed, just to change the point of attack quickly and though we did not do that quite often but when you look at the way he performed apart from the chances, I think he did fairly well," he said.
"Unfortunately, he ran out of steam as well and we had to substitute him but he did very well. Look, this is a game of mistakes, he's going to get it right, I have no doubt about it.
"One day he'll score three (and) we'll be happy, one day he'll score two (and) we'll be happy, so at the moment it's part of the game where we have to understand that all the chances that he gets is because he gets into the right areas at the right time," he went on.
"Unfortunately, he did not convert them, next time he will take them and we will all be happy. I'm happy with him especially the performance. We'll fix the finishing as time goes on."
Read: Pirates’ Cup Final Goalkeeper Conundrum
Zwane also revealed that Du Preez's presence in their attack let to Pirates assigning two players to mark him, given his pace and that opened gaps on the other side of their attack.
"We wait for moments when they drop the ball in the middle and then we become a little bit aggressive and if you can see he intercepted a lot of those passes," he continued.
"They actually played into our hands when we did a proper analysis of them individually and collectively as a team. Even now when they change to 4-4-2 after the captain (Innocent Maela) went out because of the injury.
"We knew that (Paseka) Mako he likes to go forward and we said, 'Let him come' and then we'll get the space for Keagan (Dolly) and at some point we even wanted to push Ashley into that space so we can get to the goals much quicker," he revealed.
"But we said let Ashley be on the (left) side and obviously he'll take two (defenders with him) when he makes those runs and that means we'll have two players free inside the box," he added.
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