Kaizer Chiefs coach Gavin Hunt has explained the eight changes he made to the side that faced Petro Luanda in their CAF Champions League game on Saturday evening.
Hunt rung the changes once again after their 4-0 thrashing away to Wydad Athletic Club last weekend, as Daniel Akpeyi, Erick Mathoho, Lazarous Kambole, Bernard Parker, Daniel Cardoso, Philani Zulu, Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and Happy Mashiane all came in.
With the club headed for a nine-game winless run, it was as critical to avoid the poor record as it was to pick up points in a group where Chiefs were falling behind in the race for quarter-final spots, but the 56-year-old wasn't too concerned by the dark cloud over their heads.
"The record? I don't see it [as a big issue]. Obviously, you don't want to be lumbered with those things, do you? But it is what it is," said Hunt after the match, before defending his selection.
"The goalkeeper – we all know what's happened to 'Itu', okay; Rama [Mphahlele] got sent off last week; the strikers [Leonardo Castro and Samir Nurkovic] are both injured, so we had no striker tonight.
"Man City make six or seven changes every week and they keep winning, so I don't know. We made changes because we've got lots of problems with players out and that.
"Obviously that affects the balance of the team, and when the balance goes then you need to play players [in make-shift positions].
"Like I played Lazzy [Kambole] on the right, we don't really have a right-side player so I had to play him there, and he did okay, he ran hard for us.
"We had no striker so we played Lebo [Manyama] there, and so we go through the team. Parker played as a midfielder because it was the right decision, and so on and so on.
"At the back, 'Tower' [Mathoho] hasn't played any football for us this year, so we need to play him to try and get him fit – I'm not going get him fit by training him but by putting mileage in his legs, so we have to play. It's just sort of has that domino effect into the team."