Orlando Pirates caretaker coach Rhulani Mokwena believes that his players deserve all the credit after the Buccaneers snapped their six-game winless run with victory over Chippa United on Saturday.
Mokwena took over with the club in choppy waters following the exit of Milutin Sredojevic with the club exiting both the MTN8 and Caf Champions League in a run of six games without a win in all competitions.
Mokwena, though admitted his side needed the Fifa break to work on the training pitch and after two weeks of hard work the young coach believes his players deserve all the credit for the hard word, adding that he counts for zero.
‘It’s not about Rhulani Mokwena, it’s about Orlando Pirates. Rhulani Mokwena counts for zero, the supporters deserve it. These boys deserve it, they work extremely hard,’ Mokwena told SuperSport after the game.
‘Pirates is lucky to have such honest players. You don’t find that a lot, when you find players who leave blood, sweat and skin on the pitch, then you have a bight future ahead of you,’ he said.
‘Good game, first half lot of control but not without verticality; lacking a bit of width because the opposition sits very narrow. If you also come in narrow with your attack then it alows them to reinforce their block, so it becomes very difficult,’ said Mokwena on the game against Chippa.
‘We made the gamble to bring in the younger one, Thabiso [Monyane] to give us width, a little bit of speed, so that we can find width also from the side of [Mzikayise] Mashaba. But credit to the players, not easy after the FIFA break. A really job well done from the players,’ he continued.
‘We wanted to bring in a [defensive] change of Alfred [Ndengane] but sometimes you send a wrong message with the change of a centre-back. Unfortunately, when they started playing with the two Manzinis, that is Lerato and Rhulani, we were only left with [Ntsikelelo] Nyauza staying close to Happy [Jele]. We knew we were going to have a challenge aerially, with them pumping balls into the box for the two strikers. Our response was to put another centre-back, but these things happen. All these boys not only left blood and sweat on the field but also left a piece of their skin on the pitch, credit to them.’
