“This kind of player, it’s easy for a coach, he has a fantastic mentality,” said Ouaddou.
Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has once again come out in defence of his inefficient striker Boitumelo Radiopane.
Radiopane, who has started upfront for Pirates in three of their four opening matches this season, is yet to open his goalscoring account.
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On Saturday, he started from the bench during the 1-1 MTN8 semi-final first leg draw against Mamelodi Sundowns at the Orlando Stadium.
Ouaddou has come under criticism from the Pirates fans for starting games with Radiopane ahead of the last season’s top goalscorer, Tshegofatso Mabasa, and Evidence Makgopa who made his first start in the game against Sundowns.
Ouaddou on why he prefers Radiopane
The Moroccan coach has explained why he is preferring the young striker ahead of Mabasa and Makgopa.
“This kind of player, it’s easy for a coach, he has a fantastic mentality. He is well educated as a player, as a man, he is respectful. He is a worker, so I’m lucky to have such players to train,” said Ouaddou.
“He’s a professional. It means when we call him for duty, he doesn’t have any problem. He doesn’t mind sitting on the bench and then comes on to give everything. I gave him 10 minutes [against Sundowns], and I said, ‘son you have to score your goal’. And he nearly scored, he gave everything.
“This is the mentality a coach is looking for from his players and all my players, I’m really lucky with all the players I have at Pirates, they have fantastic mentality, it’s one of the first dressing rooms I have seen such a great mentality of the players.”
Cardoso on Sundowns’ second half performance
Meanwhile, Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso says poor decision making in the second half cost them the win against Pirates on Saturday.
This comes after the Brazilians let their first half lead slip to draw 1-1with Pirates in the first leg of the MTN8 semi-final in Orlando.
“I predicted beforehand that this match would be a match of different moments,” said Cardoso.
“When you have two strong teams playing for such an important trophy, despite we are still only in the semifinal, and both wanting to go to the final, then it’s obvious that you can have different moments to manage throughout the match.
ALSO READ: Sundowns’ Cardoso blames ‘brainwork’ for draw against Pirates
“I think we started the second half quite well, but then as time went by, we started losing the capacity to have all this brainwork, to think the right things and the emotions grew inside the pitch, and because of that, we had difficulty to cope with Pirates in the last 10 minutes.”
