Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou says people shouldn’t be surprised by his match-day selections anymore after opting to start Oswin Appollis from the bench.
This follows Chippa United coach Vusumuzi Vilakazi’s comments that he was surprised to not see Appollis start in their 2-0 defeat at Orlando Stadium on Tuesday. Appollis was a late introduction and scored the winner for Pirates to see them equal 25 points with Mamelodi Sundowns at the top of the Betway Premiership table.
Ouaddou said the league campaign is too long to only use a small group of players and he doesn’t want others to be demotivated by not getting a chance, hence not starting the Bafana Bafana international.
“I think they should not be surprised anymore,” said Ouaddou.
“When you see how we are working, how we are making the turnover of the team, how we rotate the team since the beginning, it’s a philosophy. It’s how we have decided this season to work and it’s working well for now. I hope we will continue.
“When you are playing every three days, not last two weeks, but we used to play every three days, it’s very important to involve everybody in your team, because you keep the motivation of everybody.
“If you only play 11 players or 15 players, I think you have a very big risk in the season to have the rest of the team demotivated, and you cannot win a competition or a league with only 15 players. It’s very important we win a game with 11 players I used to say that every time. But you win a competition a league with a group.
“So, it’s very important for us because we speak about the notion of a group, not only starting 11.”
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