Orlando Pirates central midfielder Makhehlene Makhaula has explained his hardline stance on Buccaneers youngsters as they ramp up pressure to break Mamelodi Sundowns’ Betway Premiership dominance.
Masandawana have won an unprecedented eight successive PSL titles and are bidding for a ninth one. They currently lead the PSL standings by two points over second-placed Kaizer Chiefs.
However, amid Sundowns’ relentless dominance, Pirates have finished the league title race as runners-up in the last three seasons. But this time around, the Buccaneers have waged a bitter war to topple the Brazilians.
While placed third on the log, Pirates have three points fewer than the leaders but are inspired by the two games in hand they have played. That has left Makhaula strongly believing that they will claim the ultimate trophy in South African football.
“I also have the belief that this is the season. What is important is not to put ourselves under pressure. We just have to take it one game at a time,” said Makhaula at Pirates’ media open day on Wednesday
“When you start putting yourself under pressure, that’s when you go wrong. Don’t mind what other people are doing on social media, just focus on your house and try to do better and try to achieve whatever you want to achieve.
“I think that is the spirit we have, we don’t care about what happens with other teams. We just focus on ourselves and that has really been the spirit in us.”
MAKHAULA’S HARD HAND ON PIRATES YOUNGSTERS
At 36, Makhaula is the oldest Pirates player in coach Abdeslam Ouaddou’s squad. Expectations are high on him to provide experience in a group that has some young players like Relebohile Mofokeng, Cemran Dansin and Simphiwe Selepe.
As Pirates push for a first league title since the 2011/12 season, Makhaula discusses how he guides rising stars with a tough hand.
“I always push them [younger players], if they are not training nicely, the likes of Rele [Mofokeng], I always tell them that, ‘no don’t f**k up like this, we need to go on, we need to push,’” the 2024/25 PSL Midfielder of the Season said.
“I want to push them to achieve more. It might be the last time for some of them to experience something like this. When you don’t push them, then where will they get it?
“They are young boys, and they listen and always respect the coach, and also listen to the senior players, and you can see that they are hungry. If the boys are hungry, it’s easy.”
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CURRENT PIRATES CROP AND RECENT PAST TEAMS?
Makhaula explains what sets the current squad apart from the teams that came close by being PSL bridesmaids in the last three seasons.
“I would say our defence is solid now, we are not conceding silly goals, and we are also clinical upfront, even though we didn’t score last weekend, but are always clinical,” the veteran central midfielder went on.
“We have youngsters, the players are willing to run like 200 minutes or whatever minutes they have been given.
“I think this season it will happen [winning the PSL title]. We just have to take it easy and remain humble. That’s the only thing we have to do, even if we win the games, we just have to remain humble, and everything will just fall into place.”
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