Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has explained the substitution of Karim Kimvuidi, who looked very threating before being taken off against Polokwane City.
Kimvuidi, 21, started his sixth DStv Premiership game of the season and looked lively before being taken off for Tshegofatso Mabasa after 68 minutes.
The sub came just before Pirates’ opener, with Riveiro explaining that they wanted to mix things up to unlock City’s defence, while the winger also looked a bit tired.
“There is moments where the players can get tired, there’s many things for the players during the week that you don’t know and people don’t know,” he said when asked by iDiski Times.
“Sometimes people don’t understand the subs but there is always reasons behind. The first one is that we want to win and we’re looking for something else.
“Karim did a good job, he has chances. He helped us a lot in the progression in attack, but we were looking for something else or try something different to try to unlock the defensive position of Polokwane City.
“And [he was] a little bit tired in that moment. You remember, he lost three balls in a row before the sub and usually when players like Karim or even Rele [Mofokeng] they make that type of mistakes, usually the fatigue is behind that.
“Luckily for us, we have the same type of quality on the bench. It doens’t matter who is coming from the bench, it’s usually a good sub. So that’s what we try everytime.”
The 1-0 win saw Pirates close their gap to SuperSport United and Cape Town City to just two points, and they will now face Cape Town Spurs on Wednesday before Saturday’s Soweto Derby against Kaizer Chiefs.
