Mandla Ncikazi has seemingly blamed Orlando Pirates’ third consecutive Soweto derby defeat on the club’s participation in the Caf Confederation Cup, stating that it is “a burden” as it gave Amakhosi, who are not in a Caf competition this campaign the advantage.
Pirates suffered 2-1 defeat against Kaizer Chiefs at the weekend. “Unfortunately, the fact that Pirates are involved in the Confederation Cup is a burden,” said the Pirates co-coach.
“We played on Sunday [last week], on Wednesday, and we played today [Saturday]. Chiefs, who are not involved in Caf, played last Saturday, and they played on Saturday.”
Ncikazi added: “Without complaining but the fact that we’re involved in Caf it makes the load a bit bigger. If you were to exclude Sundowns, who have got a way of doing things with Caf, and maybe it’s a lesson for us.
“But if you check all teams [playing continentally] are burdened, AmaZulu being one of them, it does create this imbalance in the team.
“Teams only concentrating on the PSL have the opportunity to be fresh and be better. But it’s a blessing and a burden.
“If you want to be a big team, you must be able to play in Caf, play in the PSL and in the Nedbank Cup on Wednesday with the same squad that we played with.
“We just have to manage the situation better. If you’re a big team or you want to be a big team, these are the situations that you’ll always be facing.”
