Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana Bafana legend Doctor Khumalo has heaped praise on Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro, on how he handled the development players in the PSL All Stars side.
The team voted for by fans coached by Riveiro defeated Carling Knockout Cup champions Stellenbosch FC 2-1 in the Carling Black Label Cup on Saturday in Polokwane.
They did that with a couple of youngsters from the DStv Diski Challenge [DDC] such as Chiefs’ Mfundo Vilakazi and Pirates’ Jabulani Mokone.
With the DDC players often criticized for their showboating, Khumalo said the coach deserves praise for giving the youngsters the freedom to express themselves, as stifling it could have hampered their contribution in the All Star team.
“Now this is the another point about today’s game that I give a positive to coach Jose,” said Khumalo on SABC Sport.
“Because you can’t get a player today and try to convert them within 90 minutes. The least you could do is to emphasise and say ‘as much as you are enjoying yourself over there, bring it here in order for you to improve’.
“So it’s a positive and not a negative because if the coach had said ‘listen, here I don’t want to see the things you are doing in the MDC’, we were going to witness a disaster.
“If I was voted to be the coach the least that I could have done was to give the players confidence because at the moment I can’t be negative to them.
“So what the coach did is what I always say that you cannot change a leopards’ spots, they [spots] will remain there.
“Other coaches will come and convert those who are able to manoeuvre and tell them to play ‘root one soccer’. Personally I was not that kind of a player.
“If you say I must play the ball forward I’m already out of the game but if you give me the confidence to finish the opposition I’ll do that because that’s my strength.”
