Orlando Pirates striker Yanela Mbuthuma is being pushed to become one of the top striker in the country, says head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou.
The 23-year-old was lured to Pirates in the off-season from Richards Bay where he scored 10 goals with eight assists in 83 games in all competitons whilst earning caps for the U23 and senior national team.
His signing at Pirates was questioned due to the club already having Evidence Makgopa, Tshegofatso Mabasa, Boitumelo Radiopane in their ranks whilst traditionally only fielding one striker in their starting line-up.
However, all have received minutes in a rotational policy by Ouaddou thus far in the early stages of the season and Mbuthuma netted his first goals for the club from the bench in their 4-0 second leg win over Lioli in the 1st round CAF Champions League preliminary qualifiers.
“Mbuthuma is a young player, one of the talented players of South Africa, I think the scouting department of the club did a good job to bring him to the club, now the dimension of the club is different [to Richards Bay], the number of players are different as well,” Ouaddou said.
“We trying and pushing to make him a top, top, top – one of the best [strikers], and he’s doing well… we’ll keep pushing him in order to be perfect. I’m happy about his performance but we still need to work, he’s still young, so in terms of working on trust and confidence as well.”
Mbuthuma will now be aiming to earn some more minutes when Pirates return to league action tomorrow as they host TS Galaxy at Orlando Stadium.
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