Ouaddou opens up on decision to bench Mofokeng in Gallants defeat

Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has explained why he left Relebohile Mofokeng on the bench during their 2-1 loss to Marumo Gallants on Tuesday.

Mofokeng was among the surprise exclusions from the squad when Ouaddou named his starting XI for the clash in Bloemfontein and the tactician was hard pressed to explain why Pirates did not start with their best player of last season in the PSL clash.

The winger was introduced in the 57^th minute for new signing Tshepang Moremi when the scores were 1-1 after Gallants had equalised on the stroke of halftime to cancel out Patrick Maswanganyi’s 15^th minute goal but did not affect the game as the home side scored late to collect all three points.

Ouaddou justifies Rele Mofokeng’s bench role

Relebohile Mofokeng Orlando Pirates — Image – Pirates

Asked why Rele was not introduced from the start, Ouaddou admitted he went into the game with an eye on Saturday’s blockbuster MTN8 semi-final against Mamelodi Sundowns and needed to rest some of key players.

“Like I told you we have an important game soon,” said Ouaddou as quoted by iDiski Times, referring to the clash against Sundowns.

“You have seen even [Sipho] Mbule, a very important player [was on the bench]. Some players have stayed in Johannesburg as well so yeah, we played that game but we are thinking as well for the next games. So, it’s a choice that we did.”

The tactician also admits he is struggling with a bloated Pirates squad which makes it difficult to keep everyone happy.

Bloated Pirates squad giving coach problems

“We have so many players and we decided this line-up and because we have many games as well,” he added.

“When you make such a decision, you have to understand that we are playing in the MTN[8] Cup as well and against a very strong team. So, we have to make some choices and it is what we did.

“If we had won, maybe the choices would be good but now we lost of course people will say the choices were not good. But it’s football, it’s like that we made some choices and that’s it.”

Pirates play the first leg of the MTN8 semi-final at Orlando Stadium on Saturday and can ill afford a negative result after back-to-back defeats in the league.