City beat the Soweto giants 1-0 in the MTN8 quarter-finals on Friday, having defeated Polokwane City 2-0 in their Absa Premiership opener last week.
Manyama played just behind the striker against Rise and Shine, but Tinkler felt he could do more damage on the left flank against Chiefs after witnessing Wits' 2-1 defeat of the Glamour Boys on August 23.
"Obviously I played him slightly differently to what you saw against Polokwane," Tinkler said. "Against Polokwane he was playing in behind the striker. But I thought because we were playing with the three, I had to sacrifice [Aubrey] Ngoma. Not that Ngoma played poorly, I thought he was excellent. But I think Chiefs possibly expected us to play him through the middle, but we played him on our left side and I think that's where Wits hurt Chiefs in the game that they played. So I thought we would target that area with Lebo and he done exceptionally well again. There were a few times when he made some excellent runs. In the first half he was making that run in behind the defence but we delayed the pass. That could have possibly set him through on goal two or three times."
Tinkler admitted he took a risk in keeping Manyama on the park for as long as he did at Cape Town Stadium. The former SuperSport United attacker made his return from a lengthy injury against Polokwane.
"Possibly I took a bit of a risk because I thought if I can get 45 out of him I'm happy. But you know he was performing so well I kept him on in the second half. He has a bit of a hamstring pull; he hasn't torn it which is important. I possibly took a little bit of a risk keeping him on as much as I did."