Deon Hotto's change of position has been brought into question despite Orlando Pirates' victory in the Soweto Derby.
For the better part of the season, Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has opted to play Hotto at left-back rather than his usual offensive role and so far he has done well.
The Namibian international was one of the star performers as the Buccaneers defeated Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium on Saturday.
So far this season, the 33-year-old has made 30 appearances in all competitions and has scored two goals plus five assists under his name.
Former Pirates striker James Mothibi, who was at the stadium as one of the club legends invited by the Soweto giants, has his doubts about Hotto's change of position.
The Good
"All the legends were invited to give lessons to the current generation of players at the club. I was one of the legends who were invited to talk to the players about the derby. I drove all the way from the Northern Cape to give support to the boys on Saturday. I would like to thank the management of Orlando Pirates for coming up with such an initiative for us to support the ones that are still playing. I was very see to see a lot of legends turning up for the occasion, including guys like Jerry Sikhosana, Bruce Ramokadi, Tebogo Moloi, Lebohang Mokoena, Lucky Lekgwathi, Moses Moloi, Yster Khomane, Naughty Mokoena, Josep Ngake, (Johnny) 'Black Sunday' Masegela and a lot of other legends. Coming to the game itself, we (Pirates) started very slow because we focused on a defensive approach, and when we attacked, we did not throw enough numbers up front at times," said Mothibi, speaking exclusively to the Siya crew.
The Bad
"I think the change of position for (Deon) Hotto from left wing-back to left-back didn't work at times. Every time we tried to go forward, we expected Hotto to overlap to be a left wing-back. I discussed this with Bruce and the other guys that if Hotto could give us something when we were in position of the ball and moving forward, it would have worked. Five minutes into the game, he did that but maybe the coach realised that. There were moments where we picked the momentum, but there were also lapses of concentration and that's when Chiefs scored," added the Warrenton-born ex-star.
The Ugly
"I was also concerned about our discipline in some moments. Sometimes we needed to create a foul in order to allow our players to regroup and restart play but that didn't happen. For example, there was a moment where we allowed (Yusuf) Maart to just run with the ball instead of stopping him and that led to one of the goals scored by (Ashley) Du Preez. The boys (Pirates) became a little bit frustrated when Chiefs was leading 2-1 but they managed to come back and equalised before killing the game off," he said.
"It was a highly tactical game"
"But it should be said that both teams played well, and it was a highly tactical game and I felt that both sets of players gave their all. It was a 100% effort from both teams, and we couldn't have asked for more," concluded Mothibi.
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