Pirates coach highlights defensive issues ahead of CAF clash

by Staff Reporter

Thursday Jan 10, 2019. 13:15

Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic has conceded that his side has major defensive issues ahead of the start of their CAF Champions League group stage campaign this coming weekend.

The Buccaneers picked up an important Absa Premiership win on Tuesday night when they defeated Chippa United 4-2, but their performance was marked by sloppy defending.

And the same could be said of their first game of the New Year, which was a 2-2 draw away to Highlands Park last weekend.

Yet this has been an ongoing issue for the Soweto giants, who have shipped 16 goals in their 17 league matches this season.

‘Micho’ will want to see a much more defensively solid showing when his team head to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe on Saturday for their opening Champions League Group B match against FC Platinum.

“First of all, it’s never easy after the festive season to restart the engine. I, personally, believe the result was not a true reflection of what happened on the field, the result was much better than our performance,” said Sredojevic after the win over Chippa.

“We need to look critically at ourselves, and we now have three days before flying to Bulawayo on Friday to play our first match in the CAF Champions League group stage.

“In two matches we have scored six goals, which is a good standard, but in the same moment we need to be fully aware that conceding four goals is something below any standard we should be conceding.

“This is a concern that we need to address, and we need to work as a team with every intention to keep clean sheets. We are having problems, we are not running away from that, and we shall address this in due time and improve.”