Zinnbauer seething over Bucs’ complacency

Orlando Pirates coach Josef Zinnbauer (right) says his team’s horrendous display against a struggling Black Leopards at the Thohoyandou Stadium on Sunday was as a direct result of their win over Tshakuma FC (TTM) at the same venue last week.

Having won 3-0 against TTM, the Bucs coach reckons his players took the game against Lidoda Duvha lightly and thought it would be easy for them to come away with a win.

Pirates, however, were shocked 2-0 by Lidoda Duvha, who were at the bottom of the league standings ahead of kickoff. “It was difficult for me, we said these guys (Leopards) would run for their lives and fight for three points. We were not in the game in the first half, we played a little bit but it wasn’t enough for us to win the game.

“If you go into a game against a team that is in relegation (trouble) you need to give them a signal that they are not going to get anything, but we didn’t do that in the first half,” said the Bucs coach.

“Yes, we were on the field and had some options on attack, but in defence we were not aggressive,

“We didn’t close down the field and the transitions were too slow. My feeling was (the players) felt ‘yeah, we won the game before here, it’s easy.’”

The Soweto outfit remain fifth on the log with 17 points after 11 games, trailing log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns by eight points.

For Dylan Kerr’s Leopards, this was a huge result, as they jumped off the bottom, into 14th place, with nine points accumulated in 11 games.

“Points were what we needed. I remember Ernest Middendorp saying that it’s not about the performance, it’s about the result,” said Kerr.

“I’ve always said from day one if we keep the ball moving, keep possession and rotate the ball, then nobody can touch us. “Unfortunately in other games we’ve stepped back and given possession away.

“But we didn’t today and when we did finally defend as a unit, as we practiced on Thursday (last week), it all came together on the match day.”