Zinnbauer blasts PSL quality after Orlando Pirates exit

Josef Zinnbauer was frustrated with the lack of basic skills shown by his Orlando Pirates players in tenure as Bucs coach, the German has revealed.

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Zinnbauer recently exited his post as the Buccaneers coach, after the club was knocked out of the MTN8 Cup by Swallows FC in their opening game of the 2021/22 season.

The former Bucs coach believes 17-year olds in Europe have better basic skills than 30-years olds in South Africa, something he says he struggled with at Pirates, especially at the back.

“There are things that you can teach your players as a senior head coach, and there are things that a player should have learned from a young age, which is difficult to teach when he is already old,” Zinnbauer was quoted as saying by Goal.com.

“I enjoyed my time as an Orlando Pirates coach, but players there lack development, basic skills. Especially the defenders, even a 17-year-old European defender can do much better than some 30 year-old PSL defenders. You can teach, shout, but it’s impossible to change their weakness at that age.”

The German born mentor stressed that teams in South Africa should be patient when it comes to developing players, and stop using players who never went through development.

In saying that, Zinnbauer reckons the country has potential to produce top players once they get development right in the future.

“South African clubs should learn how to develop players from as young as eight years old if they want to be successful in the future. Stop hijacking already old undeveloped players. Be patient with development, and you can go from where you are and become a powerhouse in football,” he added.

“You (South Africa) have extremely skillful and talented players, but you develop them wrongly.”

Zinnbauer began his coaching stint with Pirates back in December 2019.