After failing to score in their Afcon opener, Bafana Bafana boss Stuart Baxter wants his team to play with more caution.
With just two shots at goal in the 90 minutes against Ivory Coast, how cautious do you want them to be?
There has been a false sense of confidence around this team on the back of an unbeaten qualifying campaign and a 14-match run without defeat before they came up against the Ivorians.
But how less threatening can your team be, Stu?
Baxter and Bafana desperately need a victory over Namibia on Friday or they are in serious danger of an early flight home.
If this Bafana team have real confidence, they will know that this is their best chance to get a win with Morocco lying in wait.
Baxter played with more than enough caution with a defensive 4-4-2.
The midfield of Kamohelo Mokotjo and Dean Furman didn’t do much wrong, but they didn’t really help support the attack.
The wide midfielders of
Themba Zwane and Lebo Maboe also don’t show that they really have the pace and the delivery to threaten from the flanks
They drifted inside way too often and looked to play short pass and move against the
Ivorians and Franck Kessie was having none of it.
Baxter may stick to those
tactics against a Namibian side with less organisation, but an injection of pace maybe needed at the end.
It’s something that was missing from the Ivorian game too.
Baxter didn’t use his full
complement of subs and in the heat of Cairo, that just didn’t make any sense.
That sort of caution is killing our hopes and Bafana will have to unleashed to beat Namibia.
And with the best third-placed teams also fighting for last-16 berths, some goals will go a long way to making sure we get out of the group.