Orlando Pirates take ‘wait and see’ approach to struggling striker

Congolese striker Jean-Marc Makusu’s days at Orlando Pirates may be numbered but the club are eager to give him a chance to prove himself before the end of the season.

Despite a string of injuries to key attacking players including last season’s top-scorer Gabadinho Mhango, Makusu has started just one match this season. He scored his only goal of the season coming off the bench in Orlando Pirates’ 3-0 win in the first leg of their Caf Confederation Cup playoff against Jwaneng Galaxy but has only amassed 40 minutes of football in the DStv Premiership.

Makusu joined Orlando Pirates on a season-long loan from AS Vita with the Soweto Giants able to make the deal permanent if they so chose.

Orlando Pirates will wait and see

Its tough to imagine where, when or how Makusu will get game-time before the end of the season but Orlando Pirates are in no rush to make a decision on the player.

“Obviously he has not played much because of different reasons and it’s unfair to judge him on the number of games he has played so far,” an unnamed official at Orlando Pirates told KickOff.com.

“There are still more games to be played in the league, Nedbank Cup and the CAF Confederation Cup to prove himself. Let’s wait and see until the end of the season.”

In January Orlando Pirates coach Josef Zinnbauer indicated that Makusu needed time to adapt to the team’s style of play and recover from injuries.

“Mundele [Makusu] has not been here [in SA] for long,” Zinnbauer said. 

“He needs information in terms of tactics and conditioning. Before he came here he was out for a while. We need to manage these situations well.’’

Zinnbauer saw promise in the link up between wantaway Thembinkosi Lorch and the Congolese forward but hasn’t been able to find a way to bring him into the starting lineup more regularly.

The coach was impressed with the player after his goal against Jwaneng.

“We felt it in the training sessions also and he gave us the signal in the game. He had a good game. I’ll say it again, when a striker scores it’s always good for him and he gave a good performance especially in this game,” he said. 

Opportunities seem to have dried up for Makusu and he could very well be on his way back to AS Vita at the end of the season.