Former Orlando Pirates head coach Josef Zinnbauer says he’s surprised by the limited game time Gabadinho Mhango has had this season but says there is a lot of competition at the club.
Mhango, who starred for Malawi at the Africa Cup of Nations in January, has featured in just five DStv Premiership games this season, playing less than 150 minutes of football.
The 29-year-old was a regular during Zinnbauer’s time in charge, and during the 2019/2020 season was the club’s top goalscorer.
The German coach, speaking in an exclusive interview with David Kappel in last week’s edition of iDiski Times, said he would not blame the coaching staff, and admits that even during his time at the club Mhango’s performance level did drop.
“It does surprise, yes,” Zinnbauer told iDiski Times.
“But I also have to say it is not always the fault of the coaches. We can’t say that Mhango doesn’t play because the coaches don’t like him.
“Pirates have many options in attack, Mhango also made a step backwards during my time and that is why one cannot say the coaches are doing something wrong.
“Different players have different phases. This is part of the reason for success in football.
“Sundowns, for example, they can play whoever they want. When the quality is that high, the competition is also high and the players have to perform when they get a chance. That’s where Sundowns have a clear advantage and they also have more players than Pirates.
“You can’t always blame the coach or the system, the player himself needs to find his rhythm.
“If a player finds his scoring form, he scores. Lepasa also had a great run for us before he got his huge injury, similarly Mabasa. Great form, he’s scoring but in the second half of the season, I had to play without forwards. All my forwards were injured, and serious injuries, not injuries that come from overload in training, broken bones or Lorch’s old injury which required surgery.
“It would be like taking Lewandowski out of Bayern Munich, just that they have other players but I didn’t have anyone anymore. Those are issues that result in perhaps some lesser successful games. You have to give Lepasa time, he was long injured, you have to give Mabasa time, he was always injured, three broken ankles, always the same issue.
“And then it’s normal that the player needs time to come back, some come back quicker, others need longer, few don’t fully recover after such a serious injury.
“As a coach you cannot control these things all the time, sometimes you have this kind of bad luck, and other times you have a great run.”
You can read the full interview with Josef Zinnbauer in the FREE digital version of the iDiski Times newspaper, also others interviews including Brandon Petersen, Keagan Dolly and Lyle Lakay, as well as transfer updates on Ruud Krol, Eva Nga and much more. Click below!
ENGLISH iDiski Times Edition 51 – Josef Zinnbauer & Brandon Petersen
