Pirates coach Mokwena to use break to fix mistakes

The lengthy break might just be a blessing in disguise for Rulani Mokwena and his Orlando Pirates squad to try and get his team back on the rails and hopefully strike a balance between defence and attack.

Pirates will not play a competitive game until October 26, when they take on Premier ship rookies Stellenbosch FC in the Winelands.

READ: There’s no unity among Pirates players – Ngobeni

While he waits, Mokwena hasn’t shied away from the fact the club are struggling to find a balance, which has cost them plenty in the last few games. Just recently, the Buccaneers were held to a 3-3 draw by Cape Town City at the Orlando Stadium.

The result sees Bucs occupying eighth spot in the standings with nine points, following two wins, three draws and two losses in seven games. In the meantime, they have conceded 12 goals, while scoring just 11.

“We are swimming against the tide at the moment, but we are showing a lot of character during this difficult period. I have absolute confidence and belief in the squad and the team.

“We are proud of them, we are proud of their resilience, the commitment and determination they are showing and we have to do more from our side to support them.

“If you look at some of the goals that we concede, we also have to look at our organisational forms Maybe when we were playing too many draws we put more focus on our offensive scheme and offensive patterns,” said the Bucs coach.

“We have to go back and try to balance the scale a little bit, but I think we know where our Achilles heel is.

“We want to play with the ball but we are too far apart from each other at the moment. If you want to be ball-orientated you have to be more compact so you can counter-press better.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.