Mngqithi explains Sirino substitution

Gaston Sirino has become an instant fan favorite among Mamelodi Sundowns supporters, which prompted Manqoba Mngqithi to elucidate why he decided to withdraw him.

The Uruguayan international marked his full debut at the club with a sublime assist to Percy Tau’s eighth Absa Premiership goal this season on Wednesday night in the side’s 1-1 draw with Free State Stars.

That was not all that impressed the on-looking Masandawana faithful – Sirino’s slick touches and defence splitting passes were met with cheers and resounding applauds at Loftus Versfeld.

The 26-year-old was withdrawn around the hour mark, much to the disapproval of the yellow nation.

READ: Sundowns stutter against Free State Stars

Sundowns assistant coach, Mngqithi – who was in charge of the side while head coach Pitso Mosimane was serving his last touch-line ban – has shed some light on why the Uruguayan was recalled.

“It is not because we were not happy. He had done exceptionally well,” said Mngqithi.

“For someone who is on the outside it is for them to think that we should not have taken him off but we have timelines for him. We knew how many minutes can he play and already in the second half he had dropped the intensity and we were a little bit worried when the opposition were coming out he no longer had the legs to assist us.

“When a player starts to do things that are uncharacteristic, when he starts to lose the ball where you least expect that he must lose the ball, then you must know that time is almost there when he is likely to create more problems than joy. He had done enough for his first start, he gave us a very good performance.

“It is automatic that supporters will feel the way that they felt because they did not know what we wanted him to play 60 minutes because we know his condition. If you drive him longer than that you are creating possibilities for injuries and we don’t want to lose players.”

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