The former Bucs coach feels Jose Riveiro’s men are good enough to win the league
Former Orlando Pirates coach Fadlu Davids has declared the Buccaneers good enough to challenge Mamelodi Sundowns for the PSL title given their squad depth.
Davids, who worked with German coach Josef Zinnbauer at Pirates for two seasons from 2019-2021, before staying on and becoming co-coach with Mandla Ncikazi says the Sea Robbers currently boast of one of the best attacks in South Africa that should lead them to a title challenge.
“Now is the time that Pirates probably have the best squad they’ve had in the last five years. They really have attacking options which we didn’t have,” Davids told KickOff.
“I remember during our time with Zinnbauer, we were playing without a striker. We eventually played [Thembinkosi[ Lorch as a striker because we didn’t have a striker for the first six months.”
Davids has sung the praises of the current Orlando Pirates attack
Davids is in awe of the current Pirates squad and singled out their forwards for praise.
“I think you can see the difference, you can just talk about strikers, you have Evidence Makgopa, you have Zakhele Lesapa who was bagging goals at the beginning of the season and Makgopa had a fantastic Nations Cup,” he added.
“Now you see [Tshegofatso] Mabasa suddenly coming and scoring goals. This is the difference of depth and quality that Pirates have at the moment. We can see the club has been building on since the time of us and now they have a squad that can definitely compete.”
Davids and Zinnbauer beat Chiefs target Nabi to the Morocco league title
Davids is celebrating a league title triumph with Zinnbauer after the two led Raja Casablanca to the Morocco Pro League crown at the expense of FAR Rabat, coached by Nasreddine Nabi, who is reportedly on his way to Pirates’ rivals Kaizer Chiefs.
FAR Rabat were top of the table for 18 weeks but faltered in the final weeks to allow Raja an opportunity to close in.
Pirates, meanwhile, finished second in the PSL but retained their MTN8 and Nedbank Cup crowns at the expense of Sundowns on both occasions.
The Brazilians, however, remained kings of the PSL as they claimed the league with 73 points, 23 more than Jose Riveiro’s side.
