Ouaddou raves about Pirates’ sensationally in-form Mofokeng

Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou heaped praise on Relebohile Mofokeng as a special talent after his virtuoso performance in Bucs’ 5-0 Betway Premiership victory over Golden Arrows at Orlando Stadium on Tuesday night.

Mofokeng, who is making a strong claim for the PSL Footballer of the Season award, produced a powerful man-of-the-match performance as he and Oswin Appolis scored braces in the convincing win.

The brace followed a hat-trick for Mofokeng in Bucs’ 6-0 thrashing of TS Galaxy in Mbombela in their previous game, which came before the Fifa break. That means Pirates have scored 11 goals in two matches, and Mofokeng scored five of those.

With Tuesday’s victory, Pirates kept pace with log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns, who earned a hard-fought 1-0 win over Durban City at Chatsworth Stadium on the same night.

Mofokeng now sits on nine goals and five assists from 20 league matches this season. Ouaddou said his intelligence and quality are crucial in Bucs’ title push.

“I don’t like to speak about individual players; the individual project should be in the service of the collective,” the coach said after the match on what he referred to as “a special night” at Orlando.

Some people feel [Mofokeng] cannot play as a 10, but I think he can play everywhere.

—  Abdeslam Ouaddou, Orlando Pirates coach

“The individual brilliance should carry the club project. You get these types of players every 10 or 15 years.”

Though he was full of praise for the Bafana Bafana attacker, Ouaddou was quick to point out Mofokeng still has areas where he needs to improve on to become fully rounded.

“He has talent, and it is in his blood; he is still young, and we need to give him some instructions in order to be more efficient. Especially in the area where there are a lot of duels and it is crowded.

“He has quality and intelligence, but sometimes when you have such quality you abuse it. Our job as coaches is to make him aware of which zone he can use for his dribbling.

“There are some strategy carriers on the pitch, and he needs to limit his touches and use his cleverness. That is what he has been doing for the past games, and you can see that he is able to give assists to his teammates, he is able to score, and he is mobile in the middle of the park.”

Mofokeng was once again used in the creative No 10 role, which Ouaddou stressed is the player’s best position.

“If I put him on the side, on the touchline, with 180 degrees of capacities to play ... he needs 360 degrees of possibilities to play. Some people feel he cannot play as a 10 but I think he can play everywhere; of course, not in defence.”

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