Engine room issues are haunting the Buccaneers
A GOOD mechanic will always advise motorists to keep the engines of their vehicles in immaculate conditions.
However, Rhulani Mokwena, who’s supposed to be the mechanic of Orlando Pirates this season, is yet to adhere to the advice, subsequently defying his middle name, Mlungisi (the one who fixes things).
Mokwena has been chopping and changing the most cognitive part of his team, the engine room.
And that’s why it’s been a struggle for him to steer the Sea Robbers through the troubled waters they are in since taking over the helm in August.
Sure, Mokwena may argue that it’s not entirely his fault that the club is yet to live up to the lofty billing of being title contenders this season, but considering he was Micho Sredojevic’s right-hand man for over two years, that should have at least equipped him with the common things that there are to do as a coach.
In the team’s two-year reconstruction phase under the Serbian, there were the obvious in his game-model, typically being his go-to-men in the engine room: Ben Motshwari, Musa Nyatama and Xola Mlambo.
The trio were the spine of the team, helping the Buccaneers finish as championship runners-up to Mamelodi Sundowns twice and losing finalists in the Telkom Knockout to Baroka FC.
Obviously with the team strengthened during the pre-season, there were bound to be new faces in the engine room, hence the arrival of former Maritzburg United duo Fortune Makaringe and Siphesihle Ndlovu.
The departure of Sredojevic pinned the responsibility on the shoulders of the young Mokwena, who’s had to select players that he deemed the best for Bucs on the day.
Sure, there’s still a small issue of the “injury crisis” – one that even Mokwena cannot evade – but it’s mandatory to keep the shape of the team, especially if it’s still intact, despite who comes in and with what pedigree.
It could be that Mokwena is forming his own building blocks, but having Makaringe as the only regular in the engine room in the last four matches is a call for disaster.
The engine room is, after all, the nucleus of the team, where the offensive and defensive approaches are generated.
In the last two matches, against Highlands Park and Kaizer Chiefs, Makaringe has had to adjust to being paired with either Linda Mntambo or Ben Motshwari.
With Pirates having drawn with sworn rivals Chiefs 2-2 in the Telkom Knockout quarter-final, before they subsequently lost the match 4-3 in a penalty shootout, they’ll need a sterner partnership in the second round of the Soweto Derby at FNB Stadium tomorrow (3pm kick-off).
A large section of ‘The Ghost’, however, will back the Makaringe-Motshwari combination to start for the Buccaneers tomorrow, especially having worked like a well-oiled machine in the first leg of the derby last week.
While Mokwena won’t mind scraping through with a win, he’ll have to “fix” his