Sounds way more complicated than it needs to be. If we put a player in a spot, and the other team puts a player in the same, equivalent spot, I don’t understand how that isn’t a pairing. Hey, as long as you know...
you have empirical evidence it was interpreted that way. You could do it on a purely row-by-row basis, but then it's being dismissive of the order the manager proposed by adding numbers, which I think would lead to more bitterness honestly. It does get complicated and even ambiguous at times if you don't want to be completely dismissive of not providing the correct format.