Simphiwe Selepe of Orlando Pirates challenged by Kyle Jurgens of Durban City during the Betway Premiership match at Orlando Amstel Arena where the Durbanites pulled of a defensive upset.
Image: BackpagePix
Orlando Pirates’ relatively young squad is a double-edged sword for coach Abdeslam Ouaddou. While he is pleased with their energy and hunger, he laments that their lack of experience can sometimes work against the team.
Pirates have to beat Orbit College in their last game of the season at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday afternoon (3pm kick-off) to win the Betway Premiership, ending a 14-year drought.
Given that fellow title contenders Mamelodi Sundowns wrapped up their league campaign earlier due to continental matters, Pirates went into their penultimate match needing to beat Durban City to be all but crowned champions.
But it wasn’t to be. City held Pirates to a draw at a buzzing Orlando Amstel Arena last Saturday, ensuring that the title race goes down to the wire in Mbombela on Saturday.
Pirates’ lacklustre performance in front of goal against the Citizens led to the setback. Their attackers failed to be clinical due to lack of timing, awareness of their surroundings, and schoolboy errors.
Ouaddou took note of that, stressing why having a largely youthful squad sometimes works to their advantage, and sometimes against them.
“You must verify, but I think we have the third youngest team in the PSL,” Ouaddou said. “So you have an advantage of having a young team – there’s freshness and a lot of qualities. But sometimes there’s a disadvantage when dealing with these kinds of games of pressure.”
“When you have a young team, you need to keep working. So, I hope that we will respond against Orbit College.”
Ouaddou went all out on youth and unfamiliarity against City. He handed 21-year-old Simphiwe Selepe his first start of the season, while introducing fringe player Abdoulaye Mariko as one of his impact players from the bench.
The Moroccan defended his selection criteria, while revealing why the duo were best suited to play a part in one of their most important games of the season.
“There’s no right or wrong time to bring in a certain player,” Ouadou said. “There are a lot of factors contributing – such as the fitness of the player and what you see during training and training matches.
“I think at the beginning of the season we gave a chance to Mariko against Marumo Gallants. He started his journey at Pirates. So, he had seven months to adapt to the aggressiveness, pace, and environment of the PSL.
“He did very well. You can see improvements since we saw him last time. He came in against City, showed some dynamism, and made an extra final pass inside the box.”
On Selepe, Ouaddou said: “You know Selepe from last season. We thought it was the right time to bring him on. He showed us some great things at training. It was a profile that we needed today – find space between the lines. He did well.”
A lot went against Pirates against City. They even failed to convert their set-pieces, notably 19 corners, into goals. However, with the team needing goals against Orbit, Ouaddou stressed that they needed to improve.
“If you can check the data now, Pirates is one of the best teams in either defending set-pieces or attacking set-pieces,” Ouaddou said. “It means that we’ve worked hard as the technical team in that area.
“But still, there’s a large area to improve. When you have that many set-pieces and don’t manage to score at least one goal, it means that we still have a lot of work to be done.
“People think that it’s the height of the players that contribute to converting set-pieces, but I think it’s the timing, judging the flight of the ball, and aggressiveness to convert. There are many factors contributing in this area.”