Zothwane promises fresh plan as Sekhukhune United seek Orlando Pirates breakthrough

Sekhukhune United will make tactical changes when they face Orlando Pirates for the fourth time this season, but coach Papi Zothwane says those adjustments will not come at the expense of the team’s identity.

Babina Noko have lost all three of their previous meetings with the Soweto club, including two defeats in the MTN8 and another in the Betway Premiership. That sequence of results eventually contributed to Cedric Kaze’s departure.

Zothwane was part of Kaze’s technical team as an assistant coach and now has the responsibility of finding a way past Pirates in Saturday’s Carling Knockout Cup quarter-final.

He believes the knockout nature of the fixture requires a different mindset from the one used in the league, particularly given the quality of the Pirates squad and the fact that the match will be played at the Arena.

“It’s a fixture where we have to change the approach in terms of how you want it because it’s a cup game. A cup game is very different that a league game and most of the teams when we approach Pirates based on the personnel, the quality the have, playing at the Arena and sometimes we tend to be too much on our players on what’s Pirates is going to do than what is it that we can do to win the match and that’s very, very important,” Zothwane said.

The coach said his players must focus on their own responsibilities rather than allowing their opponents’ strengths to dominate their thinking. He also accepted that the game could include periods in which Sekhukhune are forced to defend deeply.

“Our players must know what it is that they must do to win the match, yes there will be moments in the game where sometimes we’ll defend deep.

“The moments of the game are different and they have to adjust according to what Pirates brings to us but based on the approach that we see on Saturday, the intention is clear, it’s to score first when we get the chances because we’ll have a different approach because we’ve changed many approaches when we played Pirates in the league game and in the cup games.

“So, coming into this game it’s our fourth game, we can’t be playing the same way.”

Despite the run of defeats, Zothwane insisted Sekhukhune’s preparations would involve refinement rather than a complete overhaul. He pointed to the team’s form across its last six matches as evidence that its overall approach should remain in place.

“We have to change a bit but it won’t be much, we still want to keep the consistency of the team because for the past six games the team has done really well and we want to maintain the consistency and the personnel of the team,” the coach added.

Sekhukhune’s focus will be on making the most of early opportunities, with Zothwane acknowledging the difficulty of scoring first against Pirates at the Arena.

“Trying to see how best we can utilise the chances of getting early goals at Arena. I know it’s gonna be difficult but it’s something that we’ve prepared for as a team and we are hopeful that whatever that we’ve prepared for will come out on the day.”