Cardoso Explains The Decision Of Benching Shalulile

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has clarified the situation regarding striker Peter Shalulile, who has often come off the bench recently.
Cardoso explained that these decisions are tactical and related to adapting to different opponents.
Shalulile was introduced after 35 minutes to replace Siphelele Mkhulise against Golden Arrows when the game was goalless and his introduction was significant as they romped to a 4-0 victory on Sunday.
The Namibian talisman was involved in three goals as he scored a brace and created a penalty that was scored by Lucas Ribeiro Costa before halftime.
Speaking after the game, Cardoso revealed that Shalulile is a good player but people must not forget that Rayners scored four goals in a row when Cardoso arrived at Sundowns. “Regarding Peter, there’s nothing to say because Peter is a player we trust so much, but basically, we trust everybody,” Cardoso said.
“Today I called him before the match started and I told him to understand that if he’s not playing today it’s because he’s going to play tomorrow. Indeed, we don’t use regularly structure with our strikers but we’ve already used it.
“This team is not a system team, it’s a team that can perform in different systems. Today you saw we played free different systems during the 90 minutes. “We’ve already played with two strikers and we may approach the game with two guys in the front. It can be both Shalulile and Rayners but we also have others.
“You don’t have to play regularly, the important thing is that you are winning to make the important things in the right moments. Peter has been scoring goals after goals in the last four games but we should not forget that Iqraam when I arrived scored four goals in a row as well.
“When they are playing together there are things that happen, but when we play with other players other things also happen. It’s important to approach the games in different moments and we are reading each game even though sometimes it is tough.”
It was the same thing during the CAF Champions League group stage match against AS Maniema Union away when Shalulile entered the game in the second half time and was involved in both goals as they won the game 2-1.
Cardoso explained that he wasn’t happy with what he was seeing from his team against Arrows.
“Any moment a player goes out doesn’t mean a player is bad in the match, it’s a tactical approach and the values of the team should be stronger than individual values of how I approach things,” Cardos added.
“Any moment a player goes out doesn’t mean a player is bad in the match, it’s a tactical approach and the values of the team should be stronger than individual values of how I approach things.
“Obviously at halftime, I told Pitso [Mkhulise] that ‘Look Pitso, you came out not because you played bad but because we needed to approach the game differently.’ “If I knew that the approach of the opponent would’ve been the way it was on the pitch, probably I would’ve started differently. So, nothing on the work of Pitso, it was a [tactical] decision, so we’re cool on that.”