Former Orlando Pirates striker highlights Mbuthuma’s problem

Former Orlando Pirates striker Bruce Ramokadi has highlighted Yanela Mbuthuma’s biggest problem.

The 24-year-old striker has not found scoring easy since joining the Buccaneers last season.

Despite being preferred as first-choice striker, the former Richards Bay man only netted five goals in 27 matches in the previous campaign. Both Relebohile Mofokeng and Oswin Appollis, who are wingers, scored more than 10 goals for the club.

Orlando Pirates fans have called for Mbuthuma to start on the bench after the striker failed to score in the four matches he played this year.

“The thing is, he must not try hard. I see that he is trying very hard and when you do that, you are bound to make mistakes. So he must just be himself, play the football he was playing at Richards Bay,” Ramokadi said.

“Because if you’re a box striker, you need to be in the box, you don’t have to be as skillful as other players. Just do your job, even if he can score with a toe, it’s fine, it’s a goal and that will boost his confidence.

“He must not look to score smart goals, because most of the time players want to score beautiful goals. I mean when you score, a goal is a goal. On the record it says you scored, there’s no space of how you scored it, he told Kickoff.

Ramokadi praised Mbuthuma’s performance but felt the striker wanted to play like creative players at Pirates.

“I think that’s his biggest problem, he wants to play like other (creative) players and he is just a goal-scorer. But I can see he’s a hard worker, he defends from the front, which is what made him different from (Tshegofatso) Mabasa.”

Mbuthuma yet to score for Pirates this season

Ramokadi has urged the club not to lose patience with Mbuthuma. He believes the striker will eventually find his scoring boots.