Pirates had a difficult start to the season after the FIFA World Cup break, suffering back-to-back losses against Mamelodi Sundowns and Cape Town City. The Sea Robbers had gone 15 matches without scoring a goal in the second stanza of the league.
In the week leading up to the game against City, the Buccaneers brought in specialist coach Scott Chickelday, formerly of Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers. With Chickelday in the technical team, Pirates went on to thrash Golden Arrows 3-1 and drubbed Stellenbosch 4-1 last weekend.
Analysts have suggested that Chickelday is beginning to have an impact at Pirates, but Sport On SAFM pundit Phil Mkhonza believes it’s too early to judge the striker coach’s success. Mkhonza says Pirates should be competing with Mamelodi Sundowns, and the team needs to prove that their recent wins are not a fluke.
“Definitely no, because it’s too early. Let’s wait and see because Pirates should be competing with the likes of Sundowns sitting on top there, they have not delivered in terms of consistency,” said Mkhonza.
The analyst went on to say that Pirates have a lot of individual quality, but they are yet to prove that they can challenge Sundowns as a team. “The second half not scoring, hey we don’t know, it’s on and off but I think that team has got so much great individual players but they are yet to make a team that will compete with the likes of Sundowns,” he added.
