Josef Zinnbauer has said he would rather have a squad packed with quality‚ and then deal with the man-management issues and difficulty of finding the right combinations‚ than a situation of too little class in his roster.

Orlando Pirates got off to a winning start in the 2020-21 season with their 1-0 MTN8 quarterfinal win against Cape Town City at Orlando Stadium on Saturday night.

Coach Zinnbauer adventurously threw in four new signings – Thulani Hlatshwayo‚ Wayde Jooste‚ Deon Hotto and 23rd-minute scorer Terrence Dzvukamanja.

Bucs laboured for much of the game against a team playing with 10 men for an hour after Fagrie Lakay’s 33rd-minute dismissal.

But with a largely new combination‚ and Zinnbauer having said before the game his signings are at different levels of conditioning‚ and just a week off and then two-week preseason‚ the potential could still be seen from Bucs.

Zinnbauer was asked afterwards if finding combinations with so many good players‚ and keeping a big squad happy‚ will be a challenge this season.

“You can always say that you have the quality in the squad and for a coach it’s not so easy to manage this. But for a coach there’s nothing better than if you get the quality in a squad‚” he said.

“And this season we have a lot of games. You can see the players we had coming as new signings don’t have the conditioning that we had.

“It’s normal. Some players had a long time without a game‚ some were injured.

“And we have to work on the conditioning‚ and on the tactical things that we need in the game so that all the players understand what we need better.

“But for me it’s better that we have more quality and we have to manage this variable‚ than not having the quality and you have nothing to manage.”

Zinnbauer was asked about 2018-19 PSL Footballer of the Season Thembinkosi Lorch being on the bench and not featuring.

“Lorch – you know the player‚ he is a player with quality. But in this game we made another decision and maybe in the next game it’s Lorch‚ and not on the bench and in‚” the coach said.

“But yes‚ now we have top quality in the squad. And all the players have to work. We now have the possibilities where we can improve on the player in each position.

“We have now maybe two players in each position‚ and with the quality. And we can improve this more and more with the new players.

“And maybe the next opponent we need another player in this position‚ and maybe we change the system.

“And for us‚ we know the player Lorch‚ we need his quality. And on the bench we had a lot of other players with qualities who didn’t play tonight‚ and that’s good for us.”

Last season’s third-placed finishers Pirates kick off their DStv Premiership campaign against AmaZulu (13th last season) at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday night.