Cape Town City coach Benni McCarthy says he has decided on his starting XI for the MTN8 tie against Polokwane City and it will come as a shock to most, writes MARSHALL GOUTS.

The Mother City based-outfit will do duty against Rise and Shine on Saturday at the Cape Town Stadium and despite having already figured out his preferred starting line-up, McCarthy admits that he hasn’t been able to do thorough homework on City’s opponents due to lack of information.

‘It’s tough because I got to know the guys a bit better,’ he said at an MTN8 press conference.

‘I got a decent relationship with most of them. It’s going to be hard. I mean you can only choose eleven, but yeah I do have my starting lineup in mind and it’s probably going to be a hell of a surprise for most,’ he added.

The former Orlando Pirates man revealed that he reached out to AmaTuks coach Shaun Bartlett for footage on their opponents.

‘I spoke to Shaun Bartlett because they played a friendly against them last Friday.

‘I asked Shaun for the footage because we could not find any on them. Even for stats. We going into Saturday’s game bit blindfolded really.

‘The focus is really on us and how hard we work. How well we do things you know and not to get surprised by the opponents,’ he said.

The two sides clash at the Cape Town Stadium with kickoff set for 15:00.

Photo: Chris Ricco/Backpagepix

– This story originally appeared on SportsClub.co.za