The former Bafana Bafana mentor says there are several factors contributing to the Soweto giants' poor performances recently.
The Buccaneers suffered a recent 4-1 drubbing to rivals Mamelodi Sundowns to mark the current gulf in class.
"They are not doing well and I don't know what the problem is, I don't know whether it's the playing side or the coaching.
"But looking at them there is no oomph, they are just playing for the sake of honouring the fixture.
"And if you look at the lines of Gallants there is a lot of purpose in their play.
"I think big teams like Pirates are relying on star names that are not paying them back when going into the market.
"For example, if I was an official at Pirates, a striker that one would settle for is possibly that boy from Cape Town City, Fagrie Lakay.
"He is hot and If you talk about signing a striker those are the people that you need to talk about because his acceleration is good, he is pacey and very strong, and he can convert chances.
"But coming to the playing side let's wait until after Monday afternoon against Gallants to see what happens.
"But they are not impressive Pirates, they are not at all. It's embarrassing, you look at coach Screamer, he's a former Bafana Bafana coach he should be leading in terms of scouting players.
"It's not about money it's about how sharp you are in scouting for players."