We were panicky and jittery – Malesela

Daniel Malesela observed that Chippa United were unusually jittery when they went down 2-0 to Mamelodi Sundowns during their DStv match at Loftus on Sunday afternoon while his goalkeeper Ayanda Mtshali conceded they played a very organized team.

“I noticed that the team was very jittery,” said Malesela. “And I wondered why? We were panicky in the beginning of the match. I could sense a number of things in the change-room. We were awfully quiet.

“In fact, to be honest we were lucky to concede only two goals. It could have been five or something. But we get these things why people are off and we will work on the problem, if there are problems,” added Malesela.

His goalkeeper Mtshali, voted “Man of the Match” for his heroic performance that prevented a massacre, admitted that Sundowns are an organized, experienced and well-structured team.

“We tried our best but as the game progressed, you could see that we were up against an organized team. But we knew that they would be coming at and the coach warned us about it. We even spoke about it but our reaction was just not adequate enough.”

Asked by Msibi about the substitutions before halftime, Malesela said as the technical team they had to do something as some of the players were not carrying out instructions the way the team had planned, bringing in Augustine Chidi Kwem and Thabiso Lebitso.

“We had to do something,” revealed Malesela. “The players we looked at, who appeared more panicky and were not doing their functions properly, we chose those players and decided to make changes and took it from there.

“I wonder why, the team was so offish. In a sense there were a number of things I noticed even in the change-room. I will find out and discuss it with the technical team and maybe they can give me a better perspective of what actually needs to be done.”