Cape Town – Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp says he substituted Hendrick Ekstein and Godfrey Walusimbi at half-time in Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns for tactical reasons.
The pair were hauled off at the break and were replaced with Bernard Parker and Teenage Hadebe respectively.
Parker almost made an impact in the second stanza as he headed wide two golden opportunities against the Brazilians.
The changes seemed to give Chiefs added attacking impetus though they were undone by a howler from Virgil Vries, which allowed Lebohang Maboe to score a late winner for Pitso Mosimane's men.
When asked whether he was unhappy with Ekstein and Walusimbi, Middendorp told reporters after the game: "I think you saw the effect in the second-half, we had a lot of opportunities created in the second half. That is a normal way that I will definitely be changing twice very often.
"You have to make such decisions as a coach when you have six games [coming up], and it was good to put another striker going forward.
With Parker it's a different approach, where you give a little bit of thinking to the opponent's side. That is what we have to do [as coaches].
"We know each other, you make one (decision) and try to make it difficult. And, of course, it's nothing to do with being unhappy, it's just a different approach.
"I think everybody saw from the left and right, the long diagonal balls came in and that was lacking from players like [Siphosakhe] Ntiya-Ntiya and Godfrey, who is not really the strongest one in this area.
"So, we sorted it with Teenage and we still had the same power in the forward movement and having George [Maluleka] a little bit more advanced, behind or in cooperation with the three players [up front], I think absolutely was in order.
"In a certain way, the positioning and spacing was not what we needed for our movement from what I saw on the left wingback's side in the first half, so yeah it was a normal change. There's nothing specific to talk about whether we are unhappy with Hendrick or Godfrey, definitely not."
The Glamour Boys are next in action on Wednesday night when they take on log leaders Wits in Johannesburg.
Kick-off is at 19:30.
