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Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic continues to work on his players' mental strength

Orlando Pirates head coach Milutin Sredojevic takes players through their paces at a training session at Rand Stadium.
Orlando Pirates head coach Milutin Sredojevic takes players through their paces at a training session at Rand Stadium.
Image: Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix

Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic says he has had to work much more on the mental side of his players than physical to arrest a run of six games without a victory and get the Bucanneers’ ship back on track.

Pirates snapped their mini slump with an emphatic 4-1 home win over AmaZulu at the Orlando Stadium last Saturday night and will now head in a much more buoyant mood to Durban for their weekend game against Lamontville Golden Arrows.

“We need to work on the mental side by removing the pressure on the players and taking away anxiety and transferring that all onto the technical team‚” said Sredojevic‚ whose side were outplayed in Tunisia by Esperance in the African Champions League and then lost to SuperSport United in a league game where they missed a penalty.

“It is much more the mental aspect than anything else‚” the coach said of those performances.

“We were down with our confidence but I knew it was just a matter of time before they would unleash their real selves.

“The best medicine was winning and winning convincingly.”

With nine games to go in their league campaign‚ Pirates sit just two points behind the leaders Bidvest Wits and Sredojevic hints that he is to continue to play with a system that he says gives Pirates “punching power”.

“We want to have six ball players in the team with a player up top and two number 10s plus two more out wide with a midfielder coming through. That’s the platform.”

Pirates play Arrows at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Claremont‚ outside of Durban‚ on Saturday night.

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