‘We dont have ready-made stars like Ribeiro’- Richards Bay coach

Richards Bay FC interim coach Ronnie Gabriel has given an assessment of his squad, stressing that they ‘don’t have ready-made stars’ like Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Lucas Ribeiro.

Gabriel addressed the lack of quality in the Richards Bay squad following their 2-0 defeat against Sundowns at the  King Zwelithini Stadium on Saturday in the Betway Premiership.

Ribeiro was a top performer for Masandawana against Richards Bay, scoring one goal and providing an assist to Arthur Sales.

The loss to Sundowns pushed the KZN-based side into the relegation zone. Richards are sitting 15th on the league table with eight points after winning two games, drawing two while losing eight times in 12 outings.

Richards Bay’s challenging start to the 2024/25 season saw them part ways with head coach Brandon Truter last month. Truter was at the helm for less than six months after he was appointed as the coach in August 2024 to replace Vusumuzi Vilakazi.

RONNIE GABRIEL BEMOANS LACK OF QUALITY AT RICHARDS BAY

With The Natal Rich Boys fighting to retain their top-flight status, Roonie Gabriel says his team doesn’t have players of Ribeiro’s qualities to win matches.

“We need final third quality, players who can put the ball in the back of the net and conversion rate; that’s where we’re lacking,” Gabriel said. “So we will have to continue to work hard. Remember, with this group, we have to be honest with ourselves. We have a lot of youngsters in our team, and we need to coach the youngsters.

“We don’t have ready-made talent like Ribeiro, Sales and all galaxy of stars; you just put them there, and they get you results out of moments of brilliance.

“For us, we have to coach these boys every day, create training sessions to replicate the pressure of the game whereby there are more goal-scoring opportunities.

“So we are coaches who develop players to be top. With Sundowns, you saw them; they have players all over, and you can pick anyone to do their own thing on the pitch. Thats the difference between us and Sundowns, we have players that we need to coach and do many repetitions day in and day out.”

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