Pirates have come out victorious in the last three consecutive Soweto Derby encounters with Kaizer Chiefs – beating Steve Komphela in the 2017/18 season before twice overcoming Giovanni Solinas in the 2018/19 Absa Premiership and Telkom Knockout.
This will now be a third league encounter in which Sredojevic will come up against a new face in the opposite dugout, with Ernst Middendorp having arrived in December last year.
Though it has been largely the same team over the last 12 months, The Serbian tactician has had to consider the tactical and technical differences that have taken shape under Middendorp, who he feels has retained and improved element from both Komphela and Solinas.
“This is like preparing for the same exam but with a different professor, who looks differently at the topics [at hand],” said Micho.
“We had Steve Komphela, with the highest degree of respect to him, that had the team for three years together and were very well tactically organised, especially in defence, and it was not easy to find the formula [to beat them].
“Then we had coach Solinas, who was extremely offensive and more focussed on their attacking game-plan than the defensive side.
“But now, between the tactical acumen of Komphela that is immense and amazing and the attacking part of coach Solinas, we’re having a top-class combination of both, for which we need to find a balance.
“We need to find the sources of vulnerability in their otherwise very good, solid defence, and we need to find points of danger from the point of their attack, which is much better.
“With that in mind, I think it is an extremely complex job for us on Saturday, but we believe in our work and preparation, our players and the spirit we have and the support from our supporters, and we will dig extremely deep to get the desired performance and result.”