Pirates and Chiefs lock horns in the famed Soweto Derby at the FNB Stadium this weekend, with plenty of interesting battles expected to present itself come 15h30.
Arguably one of the bigger talking points are that of Amakhosi’s goalkeeping situation, where coach Ernst Middendorp will have to choose between under-fire Virgil Vries, new signing Daniel Akpeyi or largely inexperienced youngster Bruce Bvuma in the absence of the injured Khune.
It may well be an avenue The Buccaneers will be looking to exploit, but Lorch remains adamant that their plans will not be focussed around certain individuals but rather on capitalizing on the entire teams’ weaknesses.
“They have good goalkeepers despite Khune being injured, I think. They now have Akpeyi, who has done well previously for Chippa United, and Vries too – it’s just those little mistakes that have made him seem like a bad goalkeeper, but he is good,” Lorch tells snl24.com/kickoff.
“I wouldn’t really comment on their keepers, they [Chiefs] are still capable of doing well without Khune. We can’t focus on individuals, but we have to look at where their weaknesses [as a team] are and try to capitalize on that.
“We will keep doing what we’ve done in the past Derbies. It’s not only about one player but we have to plan around all the players that will play on Saturday.”
Meanwhile, Bucs have dropped out of the Absa Premiership top-two for the first time since mid-September last year, after Mamelodi Sundowns moved into second behind leaders Bidvest Wits on Wednesday evening.
As such, Lorch has emphasized the importance of the three points at stake against their arch-rivals but adds that they will not put unnecessary pressure on themselves ahead of the match.
“These three points are very important for us because they can help us stay amongst the teams on top like Wits and Sundowns,” he says.
“We have to get maximum points only, we can’t afford to lose this one. But we won’t put ourselves under pressure, we will play our normal game and try to win as we do in other games.”