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Tinkler: SuperSport focusing on league over CAF

Cape Town - SuperSport United head coach Eric Tinkler believes his side may need to put the CAF Confederation Cup on the back burner in order to improve their Absa Premiership performances.

Matsatsantsa will once again compete in the Confederation Cup thanks to finishing second in the league last season, while also winning back-to-back Nedbank Cup titles.

However, their league form this campaign has been poor and Tinkler believes they need to refocus on their Premiership ambitions. United are 11th in the league standings, four points adrift of the top eight.

"For us, I think this season so far has been quite an exceptional season, when we look at the [2017] Nedbank Cup and then, obviously, the Confederation Cup and MTN8,” said Tinkler, as quoted by Kickoff.

"But the league is always priority and, for us as a club, we need to be finishing in the top eight – top six preferably. Our aspirations in the beginning of the season was obviously higher – we were looking to go for the title.

"I honestly believe what happened in Africa really did hurt us as a team, and right now we need to be questioning how far we really want to go in this year's CAF competition, knowing what effects it had on the team and the squad."

Matsatsantsa next face rock-bottom Platinum Stars in a league clash at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Tuesday with a win catapulting Tinkler's side into the top 8.

Kick-off is at 19:30.

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