Timm’s shoes too big to fill but Riveiro disagrees

As clear as it was that their midfield was ineffective, Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro refused to attribute that to the absence of Miguel Timm when arch rivals Kaizer Chiefs outsmarted them to win 1-0 at FNB Stadium at the weekend.

Timm, who’s been a key cog in Pirates’ engine room this season, was suspended against Chiefs after accumulating a fourth yellow card during their match against Mamelodi Sundowns in the second leg of the MTN8 semifinals the previous weekend. Timm’s unavailability saw Bucs alter their usual approach of playing with three midfielders, opting to play with a second striker in Zakhele Lepasa instead.

Chiefs midfielders Njabulo Blom and goal scorer Yusuf Maart had a lot of freedom in the middle of the park, where Pirates had Ndabayithethwa Ndlondlo and Goodman Mosele, who was replaced by Ben Motshwari after suffering an injury before the hour-mark.

Despite being outwitted in the engine room, Riveiro said they didn’t miss Timm. “We didn’t miss anyone today but we missed the rhythm we are used to play in the beginning of the game and we need to analyse why we didn’t and why we couldn’t,” Riveiro said.

Chiefs played in high tempo for the better part of the game.

Interestingly, Riveiro still believes the game was a tedious affair, saying it should have ended in a goalless draw. Pirates have since switched focus to Saturday’s sold-out MTN8 final against AmaZulu at Moses Mabhida Stadium (6pm).

“From my point of view, [it was] a bad game... a 0-0 game, a very slow game, at least the opening, the beginning was played in a rhythm. And also from our opponent, I think it was quite boring, to be honest. We didn’t manage to be vertical. Chiefs was giving us the space to play outside and defending with numbers in those corridors. We were very disconnected in the first half of our build-up, our central midfield, and our player upfront,” the Pirates coach said.