Former Orlando Pirates star Liau declines to judge Maswanganyi and Ouaddou

A former Orlando Pirates playmaker says he will not comment on the apparent tension between Patrick Maswanganyi and head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou because he has never heard the player’s account of events.

Maswanganyi’s unexpected move to Bahrain club Al-Khaldiya SC last month came at a time when he was expected to take on a bigger role as Pirates’ number 10. That opportunity arose after Relebohile Mofokeng moved to Europe during the off-season.

The transfer followed questions about Maswanganyi’s relationship with Ouaddou, which appeared to fluctuate during the season. The pair also attracted attention after the coach was shown confronting the player with harsh words in an episode of Bucs Camp, Orlando Pirates’ documentary series broadcast on SuperSport TV.

Ouaddou later gave his version of their relationship while speaking to the media.

“We had difficult moments last season. It took a bit of time for him to understand what I expect of him. In training, I always said the job doesn’t start in the game, it starts in training at the start of the week,” he said.

“I was not happy with how he was training, but I was happy with how he returned … fresh, in every training, full of energy. I think if he listened to me last season, he would have been at the World Cup, definitely.”

Thapelo Liau, who spent three seasons with Pirates between 2002 and 2005, said the focus should now be on finding a suitable replacement rather than revisiting the disagreement.

“Players come and go at Pirates, but there will always be a replacement. They can scout proper players. Tito was my favourite player; he was a special boy, and he was playing that role very well,” said Liau, who is also known as ‘Abuti Bula Buti’, in an interview with KickOff.

However, Liau was unwilling to assess the dispute between Maswanganyi and Ouaddou without hearing from both parties.

“But I don’t want to go deep into him and the coach because I don’t have the proper info in terms of what was happening there. I’ve never heard Tito’s side on what his issue with the coach was. I don’t like commenting on situations like that.”

Liau said he had spoken to Maswanganyi on numerous occasions and encouraged him to understand the demands of playing in the number 10 position.

“But I met with Tito so many times, and I used to talk to him and encourage him that, as a number 10, you must know that your role is to create goals and score goals. You play to score. You must score goals because you go all over the world; the number 10s score goals.

“I was happy to see him scoring goals, and for me, that was the most important thing. No matter how skilful you can be, the ultimate goal is to win, and you do that by scoring goals, and I saw him doing that.

“I really, really wish him all the best,” he added.