The honest truth is that RhulaniMokwena’s tenure as a coachof Orlando Pirates since takingover fromMilutin Sredojevic has divided opinion about whether it was premature handing a young, inexperienced coach among themost volatile jobs in the country.
His case has been complicated by the fact that results have not been forthcoming. In his first dozen games he won just three, lost five and drew four – three of them goalless stalemates.
The goalkeeping department and the defence has looked chaotic with 15 goals conceded in those 12 games, the midfield has been changed at the toss of a coin with the only hope being the energy provided by Gabadinho Mhango and the goals scored by Tshegofatso Mabasa.
Though the season is not even at the halfway stage, the reality is that Pirates will neither win the league nor even be challenging for the top three having fallen so far off the chasing pack.
What hurts The Ghost is that they were knocked out of the MTN8 at the first hurdle and then were felled by rivals Kaizer Chiefs in the quarterfinals of the Telkom Knockout, which now leaves the Nedbank Cup as the only piece of silverware to play for.
Added to that a first round exit from the CAF Champions League at the hands of Zambian side Green Eagles, and it has been a disastrous fewmonths for the club.
The circumstances that led to Mokwena being handed the job at Pirates were unforeseen but the fact that he chose to agree to take over spoke of his courage and belief that he feels he can do this job.
“It was wrong of Pirates to give this boy that job,” states yesteryear Pirates forward Andries ‘Local is Lekker’ Sebola.
“They were not supposed to hire him as head coach, he should have been an interim coach for a couple of games while they looked for a coach. You can see the boy doesn’t have the experience of coaching a big team like Pirates.
This story is from the December 2019 edition of Kickoff.
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This story is from the December 2019 edition of Kickoff.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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