Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has explained how the club plans to cope with the departure of star playmaker Relebohile Mofokeng, who secured a move to Europe at the end of last season.
Mofokeng was instrumental in the Buccaneers’ treble-winning campaign, including their Betway Premiership triumph.
His outstanding performances also earned him several accolades at the PSL Awards, highlighted by the Footballer of the Season honour.
The 20-year-old featured in 36 matches across all competitions, scoring 11 goals and registering nine assists.
Ouaddou acknowledged Mofokeng’s importance to the side, particularly his creativity and ability to unlock defences.
The Moroccan coach revealed that the technical team has been working on identifying “other profiles” to fill the void left by the talented midfielder.
He added that the team experimented with different solutions during their pre-season tour of Spain and will see the results when Pirates begin their league campaign against Milford on Saturday.
“Rele was an important player for the club. If you can just see the data, his involvement in our chance creation, it was huge,” said Ouaddou.
“But I believe that it’s important to find other profiles that maybe can take the lead. As you know, we are not all the time speaking about individualities.
“It’s important to speak about a collective. It’s what we tried in Spain to work. We worked many combinations, a lot of different profiles in the middle, trying to see.
“But I think we can have a good answer this weekend, and we’ll see.”
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