Head coach Jose Riveiro has come to defence of an Orlando Pirates midfielder following a 4-1 hammering by the red-hot Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday.
Pirates' title hopes took a knock as they fell 4-1 to Sundowns in rather meek fashion at a sold-out Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
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It was the trio of Grant Kekana, Teboho Mokoena and Lucas Ribeiro (brace) who found the net for the home side, while Deon Hotto pulled one back for Bucs with a deflected shot.
Among the talking points from the match was the impact of attacking midfielder Kabelo Dlamini, who got the nod from Riveiro, in the absence of injured Thalente Mbatha.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Riveiro defended his decision to filed the creative midfielder.
"I don't think so (that it was the wrong decision). Kabelo was helping us a lot on the ball, always giving us extra time on the ball to get organised. In the second half, he was the one giving us balance in midfield," the Spaniard said.
"Even in our rest defence; winning duels, helping the centre-backs. Sometimes our eyes [will tell us that Makhehlene] Makhaula is more defensive and Kabelo is more offensive, but in this team, everyone is defending when we don't have the ball and we all try to attack.
"Even Makhaula, recently you can see the evolution of him as an offensive player when we're on the ball – so we played today with two players who have experience and quality.
"Dlamini's numbers in the league are top in every aspect, you should have a look.
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"But sometimes our eyes are telling us things that aren't totally true, we just want to confirm what we think about one player, even though the player is doing something totally different," explained Riveiro.
In the absence of Mbatha, it was thought the 49-year-old coach would deploy an extra defensive midfielder to play alongside Makhaula and thwart any danger from Sundowns' overloaded choice, hence Dlamini being considered an interesting choice in the line-up.