Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has explained why he made an unusual substitution, taking off centre-back Olisa Ndah in a match against Golden Arrows.
The Buccaneers grabbed a 2-1 victory on the road on Sunday in a match played at the Mpumalanga Stadium. This was their fifth triumph in their last six DStv Premiership matches, as they seem to have remembered how to win.
In what could have raised eyebrows, Riveiro took off the Nigerian defender, Ndah, introducing Tapelo Xoki in the second half.
The Spaniard says he didn’t want to take the risk of keeping Ndah, who was already on a yellow card. He felt there was a high possibility of him receiving the second.
The 25-year-old has accumulated two yellow cards so far in the 11 matches he has featured in all competitions.
JOSE RIVEIRO SAYS HE DIDN’T WANT TO TAKE RISK WITH OLISA NDAH
“Absolutely, we got two unnecessary yellow cards in my opinion in the second half. Tito [Patrick Maswanganyi] and Olisa [Ndah], and I didn’t want to take any risk collecting a second one,” said Riveiro.
“And in the last minutes, we had a possibility to play with the players with a total guarantee like Tapelo Xoki and Nyoso [Thembinkosi Lorch] coming from the bench.
“The team is not gonna feel any difference. And we can guarantee that next week, we will have Olisa also ready to play.
“I think he got his fourth yellow card today. But the most important thing was to finish [the match] with eleven players on the field today. Looking at the circumstances, we didn’t want to take any [risk].”
Orlando Pirates face SuperSport United on Saturday, 23 December at the Peter Mokaba Stadium at 5:45 pm.
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