Orlando Pirates tactician Abdeslam Ouaddou has lauded his new acquisition, Oswin Appollis, following his strong showing on his debut on Saturday.
The 23-year-old Bafana Bafana international was in action against his former team, Polokwane City, in the MTN8 quarter-final fixture staged at the Orlando Stadium. He needed just 12 minutes to get his first goal for Bucs. The South Africa winger was then fouled in the 33rd minute inside the 18-yard area, and Patrick Maswanganyi converted the resulting penalty.
Ouaddou is delighted with Appollis' display and promised to bring him to the ‘highest level.' However, he has pointed out areas the winger will need to work on to be even more effective.
We didn't want to burn him out'
“Appollis, I played against him with my previous club [Marumo Gallants], I know completely 100% the player completely, I know his quality, I will not change him, but as an ex-professional footballer and now a coach, I want to bring him to the highest level,” he told the media.
“Of course, we need to discipline him to give him some tactical work to do; he did it during the pre-season camp, and you can see we now don’t use him just for transitions. He has many tasks now. We gave him 60 minutes; we didn’t want to burn him [out].
“But he can come between the lines, make runs from deep, he can change sides [flanks] I want dynamic players, not just standing on one side and waiting for the ball. I want a dynamic team, a dynamic system – modern football.
“We’re not just a 4-2-3-1 or 3-4-3, everyone is changing positions, and the opponent won’t even know how you’re playing because it’s modern football, we want to manipulate space, the opponent, the lines… It’s what he did today, and we will continue to build him,” Ouaddou concluded.
