Orlando Pirates tactician Jose Riveiro has defended his decision to keep Thabiso Monyane on the pitch, even when it was clear there was a big possibility he'd be sent off in Tuesday's 2-0 defeat at Sekhukhune United.
Monyane was eventually sent off in the 58th minute after a second bookable offence, having been initially cautioned late in the first half. The right-back's red card put Pirates on the back foot as Sekhukhune netted both goals, through Elias Mokwana and Vusumuzi Mncube, when the visiting Sea Robbers were a man down at Peter Mokaba Stadium.
"If we substitute every player who gets a yellow card, we will sometimes end up exhausting substitutions. The players need to understand that there are different situations in the game that they need to control and sometimes you need to manage playing with a yellow card,'' Riveiro argued.
"In the past we didn't have any problems [when they didn't withdraw a player after being cautioned], so it [Monyane's second yellow] was unexpected and that's it."
Sekhukhune's second goal was a downright gift from Pirates keeper Richard Ofori, who was dispossessed trying to make amends after a heavy first touch. Even so, Riveiro didn't want to point a finger at his shot-stopper. The Pirates coach thinks they were very close to scoring before the red card, admitting they didn't start off well.
"We were disorganised on the field, looking to at least get one point [by equalising] and the players were tired because we played a lot of minutes with one man down and it's normal to commit a mistake and we committed more than one, the opponent scored the second goal,'' Riveiro said.
"We didn't play badly in the first 15, 20 minutes... we had it pretty much under control but towards the end of the first half we were not playing the way we wanted to for different reasons. Just before the red card I think we were close to take the lead and at that moment we had a feeling that the situation was under control as we were playing closer to their box."
Pirates will be hoping to get back to winning ways when they host Richards Bay in another league tie at Orlando Stadium on Saturday (8pm).
