Squad management crucial for Zinnbauer’s Orlando Pirates

Orlando Pirates coach Josef Zinnbauer acknowledges that his team won’t always have top performances and says sometimes they need a wake up call to get back to their best.

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This is after the Buccaneers pulled out a great performance which saw them thrash Chippa United 3-0 in their last game. But, prior to the Chilli Boys clash, Pirates struggled to beat a 10-man Bloemfontein Celtic, as the Soweto club only managed to get away with a slight 1-0 victory.

“The situation always changes in football, we know this as coaches and maybe you also as a journalist might know. You don’t just snap your fingers and then you get a very good performance, it’s always changing. Last time we played against 10 and I was frustrated because we had many chances to score,” said Zinnbauer.

“We didn’t have a top performance, but we got the result that is always important for a coach. Maybe we always need a little bit of a wake up call, but when we get the result, then we don’t have a problem as coaches.”

The German born coach also adds that with the club competing across three competitions – the DStv Premiership, Nedbank Cup and the Caf Confederation Cup, it’s important to have his full squad in order to give him options in his selection.

The Buccaneers are set to meet up with Algeria based outfit ES Setif in their opening match of the group stages in the continental tournament at the Accra Sports Stadium in Ghana, which has been selected as a neutral venue for the match due to travel restrictions in Algeria because of the Corona virus.

“We have more players coming back now, Bongani Sam is back but it seems like now he has a small injury again, I don’t know. I hope it’s not that bad. But you saw Gabadinho Mhango came in, Tshegofatso Mabasa came in and Thabiso Sesane. We have more players now, we can manage the squad. We know that we have a lot of games, we are in all competitions. We are happy about this and I think the players are motivated to play in all of them.”

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