Orlando Pirates need to be more aggressive in front of goal, says Fadlu

Orlando Pirates will hope to finish off a tumultuous month of August on a better note when they take on Golden Arrows on Wednesday night.

Rhulani Mokwena’s outfit have had a month to forget, although it got off to the best possible start when they beat Bloemfontein Celtic 3-1 in the Premiership season opener on 3 August.

But then the wheels came off rather quickly for the Buccaneers. They went down 1-0 to Green Eagles in the Caf Champions League, which was followed by a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of SuperSport United in the league.

The big bombshell landed on Friday, 16 August, when Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic resigned under a cloud of secrecy, and a day before the MTN8 quarter-final against Highlands Park.

It was no surprise that they lost 1-0 to the Lions of the North in Mokwena’s first game in charge.

Pirates managed to halt the slide with a hard-fought goalless draw away against AmaZulu. And while they again avoided defeat in the second leg against Green Eagles in a 1-1 stalemate, they lost 2-1 on aggregate last weekend to be knocked out of the Champions League.

Now sitting 11th on the Premiership log, Pirates hope to get back into the winners’ circle at Orlando Stadium on Wednesday night (7.30pm kickoff) against high-riding Arrows, who are fourth on the standings with two wins and a defeat.

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“After the huge disappointment of being knocked out of the Champions League, of course we’ve regrouped and really tried to lift the spirit of the players,” assistant coach Fadlu Davids said in a video on the Pirates Twitter page on Wednesday.

“After analysing all the games that we’ve been playing recently, we are creating a lot of chances, but (have) not been aggressive enough really in putting the ball into the back of the net.

“We have been working hard over the last three days to really put that clear structures in for our players to be able to score the goals – to create the perfect conditions for our players to really display their skills and execute in the final third. That’s what we are trying to do.”

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