How Tinkler took advantage of Chiefs' shaky defence

Cape Town City tactician Eric Tinkler has given an account of how Kaizer Chiefs' rather peculiar back-three system proved advantageous for them when they beat Amakhosi 2-0 at Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday.

Despite deploying three central defenders in Njabulo Ngcobo, Zitha Kwinika and Siyabonga Ngezana at the heart of their defence, Chiefs were still leaky and shaky against City. Darwin Gonzalez and Idumba Fasika were the scorers.

"To a degree, I think Chiefs playing with a back-three did play into our hands because we knew that could allow our full-backs to have a little bit more space,'' Tinkler said.

"They ended up playing with five because [Dillan] Solomons was playing very deep and [Reeve] Frosler was also playing very deep. So we knew that once they come out, to come and press, the space will be in the channels in the wide areas and you'd now be pulling those centre-backs out of comfortable positions inside."

As a coach, Tinkler has now beaten Chiefs 10 times in 21 attempts, making Amakhosi the side he's beaten the most. The Citizens trainer insinuated he had no secret as to why he's been successful against the Soweto giants.

"I don't know why, [that he's beaten Chefs more than any team] to be honest. I can't really answer that one to be honest, but funny enough this morning [on Tuesday] I thought about it, saying that actually I have been very successful against them and hopefully that success continues today so we can turn the corner,'' Tinkler said.

Meanwhile, Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane remains optimistic they'll get it right along the way, seeing no need to panic. Amakhosi have already lost three league games thus far.

"We'll get the chemistry right because the problem right now is when we try to fix this, then we find a problem in another position, but it's not a train smash. We have enough time ... along the way we'll get it right actually,'' Zwane noted.