Kaizer Chiefs head coach Steve Komphela says substituting Bernard Parker and George Maluleka in the 3-1 win over Free State Stars had nothing to do with their performances.
Parker doubled Amakhosi’s lead in the first half, while Maluleka pulled all the right strings in the middle of the park and eventually walked away with the man of the match award.
And Komphela revealed after the game that he just wanted to save the two players for the upcoming game away to Maritzburg United.
The 49-year-old mentor admitted that seeing Parker back to scoring ways is a confidence booster. The former FC Twente striker has netted three times in as many matches for Amakhosi, and he’s among the leading goalscorer at the club with three league goals.
“I think with Parker, we have always said it; Parker is classy, and class is permanent. You can fault Parker for anything, but not effort,” Komphela told reporters.
“Parker would go into a match, he would commit errors. He might not have the best of the matches, but in terms of commitment, you can never fault Parker, and that he’s been scoring – against Polokwane City, Golden Arrows and tonight – is a confidence booster,” he said.
“Which is the reason why when we pulled him out, we gave him a small message… the same with George Maluleka, that ‘listen we’re having a match in four days, that 10 minutes will help you a lot, because you don’t what would happen in that 10 minutes’; that’s why we pulled him off, the same with Maluleka, who had a good game, and sometimes we as coaches get punished for pulling out a player, but I’ve seen situations where a guy scores a hat-trick and gets pulled out and the fans appreciate the fact that his contribution was immense,” he continued.
“You don’t bring him out because he’s having a bad match. There could be other reasons. You can see that this one is almost done, and you bring him out to save him,” Komphela added.
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