Ouaddou insists Orlando Pirates ready to share creative burden after Mofokeng exit

Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou says the club will not look for a like-for-like replacement for Relebohile Mofokeng, insisting a collective approach will compensate for the playmaker’s move to Europe.

Mofokeng, who left at the end of last season after a breakthrough campaign, was central to the Buccaneers’ treble success, including their Betway Premiership title. The 20-year-old’s performances saw him sweep several honours at the PSL Awards, headlined by the Footballer of the Season prize.

Across all competitions, Mofokeng played 36 matches, scored 11 goals and contributed nine assists, underlining his role as the team’s main creative outlet.

Collective plan to fill creative gap

Ouaddou, speaking ahead of Pirates’ Betway Premiership opener against Milford on Saturday, accepted that replacing Mofokeng’s influence will be a significant challenge.

“Rele was an important player for the club. If you can just see the data, his involvement in our chance creation, it was huge,” said the Moroccan coach.

However, he stressed that Pirates have been working deliberately to ensure the team is not overly dependent on one player.

“But I believe that it’s important to find other profiles that maybe can take the lead. As you know, we are not all the time speaking about individualities.

“It’s important to speak about a collective. It’s what we tried in Spain to work. We worked many combinations, a lot of different profiles in the middle, trying to see.

“But I think we can have a good answer this weekend, and we’ll see.”

Searching for “other profiles”

Ouaddou revealed that the technical team spent the club’s pre-season tour of Spain testing tactical variations and personnel in midfield, with the aim of reshaping the side’s attacking structure after the departure of their key playmaker.

Rather than pinning hopes on a single successor to Mofokeng, Pirates trialled “other profiles” in central areas and in advanced positions, looking at how different players could share responsibility for chance creation and goal involvement.

The coach indicated that these experiments included multiple midfield combinations, with players asked to adapt to new roles to ensure the team maintains its attacking fluency despite the loss of its most productive creative force.

League campaign to reveal answers

Pirates will get their first competitive indication of how effectively they have absorbed Mofokeng’s exit when they face Milford in their opening league fixture.

Ouaddou suggested that while the process of adjustment is ongoing, he expects to see clear signs of the new approach taking shape as the season begins.

Having built their success last term around Mofokeng’s ability to unlock defences, Pirates now head into the new campaign aiming to prove that their attacking threat can be sustained by a more collective model, rather than a single standout star.