Pirates coach downplays Gaba’s goal ‘drought’
South African football giants Orlando Pirates’ coach Josef Zinnbauer has downplayed his Malawian marksman Frank ‘Gabadinho’ Mhango’s goal ‘drought’, saying there is no need to make a fuss of it.
For the first time since joining the Buccaneers at the start of the season, Mhango failed to score in a third consecutive Premier Soccer League (PSL) match against Golden Arrows on Saturday in a contest that ended in a goalless draw.
However, the Flames marksman still leads the scorers chart with 14 goals—two ahead of his closest chasers Peter Shalulile of Highlands Park, Amazulu’s Bongi Ntuli and Bradley Grobler of Orlando Pirates.
“I was happy with ‘Gaba’ scoring, but what is important is the focus on all the players,” Zinnbauer was quoted as having said by South African publication Soccer Laduma.
“We have other players that can score. ‘Gaba’ had his chance and there are still a lot of games where he can score. I hope he can score against Mamelodi Sundowns [in the next game next game on March 17], but we have others as well.”
The German coach insisted he was still impressed with Mhango even without the goals because of his overall work ethic for the team.
“He works hard and the supporters were applauding him when we took him out. We needed fresh players on the field. I didn’t hear a bad word.” Zinnbauer said.
“There are other players too. We have [Tshegofatso] Mabasa, who is behind him in terms of the number of goals with six goals and it’s not so bad when he comes on the pitch. He needs practices, he runs, presses and fights for the team. We have [Zakhele] Lepasa as well, these guys need minutes on the field. It’s normal to change players.”
On his part, Mhango last week said he is aware of the awful lot of expectation after setting the pace.
“There are times when you go through such a patch as a player, but the critical thing is to remain focused.
“I know others are closing in on me, but I do not want that to have an effect on my game,” he said.
