Have you ever wondered what coach Kaitano Tembo’s football philosophy is?
Well, the second half of Sekhukhune United’s 1-all stalemate against defending league champions Mamelodi Sundowns at the weekend is the answer to how Tembo wants his team to play. From his SuperSport United days, Tembo has always been one of those coaches who are often accused of not having their own style in terms of how their teams play.
Tembo’s Sekhukhune put in a brilliant second stanza display to hold Sundowns to a draw. Peter Shalulile had broken the deadlock at the stroke of halftime until his goal was cancelled out by Linda Mntambo a few seconds into the second period at Peter Mokaba Stadium.
“We didn’t have a good start. We sat back and waited for them [Sundowns]. We didn’t take the initiative but we only reacted to what they did,” Tembo reflected.
“That put us on the back foot. We also conceded a goal at a critical time, where we could have just sat back and said ‘let’s defend the last few minutes we'll fix it after the break’. Second half, we needed to say some harsh words to the players to say, ‘are we going to just wait and allow Sundowns to dominate us?’.
"We played with a little bit more energy in the second half...we pressed them from the beginning, hence we scored the goal. That’s how I want to play. I want to play a pressing game...I want to take the initiative.”
Tembo was content with a point, emphasising they’re still a work in progress. “I will take a point because it wasn’t an easy point against a very good Sundowns team.
“We’re still trying to gel as a team. You can see the combinations are still not there in terms of when we have the ball. Defensively, we have the shape but now we need to put a little bit more effort when we have the ball because we’re not clear as to what we want to do with the ball, how we want to build up and how we want to play.”
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