The challenges facing new Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou have been outlined after the Soweto giants started the league championship race with a damaging loss.
Thousands of Bucccaneers faithful left Orlando Stadium disappointed on Saturday following a 1-0 Betway Premiership defeat to bogey side Sekhukhune United.
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The bad start wasn't expected considering the quality of signings made in the off-season, coupled with the winning start in the MTN8 seven days earlier.
"I was disappointed. Pirates look weak. They are not the Pirates we know," admits local football legend Mlungisi Ngubane.
"Maybe they think the new players can replace the players who were absent overnight, and they found out the hard way that it's not gonna be easy.
"Pirates are a big team. You can’t just take a young boy like Tshepang Moremi from AmaZulu FC, who is still new in this league, and expect him to score goals for Pirates.
"You can’t just come there and be a perfect replacement for Mohau Nkota. That boy worked hard for that position.
"But maybe we are too used to the likes of Makhehleni Makhaula and Thalente Mbatha. Those are Pirates' strongest midfielders," he argues.
'Professor', as he is fondly knwon, says though the players signed by the Soweto giants are of exceptional quality, they still need time to adapt.
"As for Pirates selling their best players, I'm disappointed. Pirates are not supposed to sell their players because they have all the money. To challenge (Mamelodi) Sundowns, Pirates needed to keep all their best players from last season.
"They needed to keep all those players who took them to last season's CAF Champions League semi-finals. But now they have started building all over again.
"Boitumelo Radiopane has been given enough chance, but he doesn't show up. The Pirates jersey is too heavy for him, and as a result, Relebohile Mofokeng is the one who is suffering.
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"Oswin Appollis is a good player, but he too hasn't taken off like Nkota did. Maybe Nkota's advantage was that he had spent some time at the Pirates' DDC team. Appollis and (Sipho) Mbule did play well on Saturday, but this is Pirates, so we expect more.
"We don't know the reasons why the regular players were not there, but I doubt the coach dropped them to give way to the new players. He had to play them because the regular players were not available," said Ngubane.
Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
