If ever there’s someone who divides opinions between the Ghost as Pirates fans are famously called, pundits, former players and rivals, it’s definitely the German born native Josef Zinnbauer or JZ as he is fondly known. The Schwandorf native was called in to steady the ship, which was floating in murky waters.
Having found interim coach Rhulani Mokwena’s charges floundering on both ends of the pitch, with 20 goals conceded, 17 points from 13 games and in danger of being drawn into a top 8 battle. He went on to finish a credible 3rd, with 2 ppg, losing two league games and only conceding a further 9 more goal with the same group of players.
Fans, pundits and everyone in the football fraternity, went to the 2020/21 season, looking forward to a titanic title battle between current DStv Champions and Zinnbauer’s charges. The sense of excitement
was only heightened when Orlando Pirates won the MTN8 cup final, breaking a 6 year trophy drought in style.
What followed is a team struggling to break deep defensive blocks, employed by most of the DStv Premiership clubs, to deny big teams space in between the lines and behind the defence. His overall record reads like this P39, W22, D11, L5 on the face of it this looks like a great record, but scratch the surface and numbers start to look different.
Pirates are struggling to beat minnows, leaving them trailing their rivals and current DStv Champions by 8 points. This together with the direct football, the team continues to play has made a section of Pirates
fans to call for his sacking, but is it fair to call for JZ to be sacked, when he is the only coach in the DStv Premiership era to deliver silverware and in the process breaking a 6 year cup drought? I guess we will never know.
The football admittedly is not liquid football, but it’s simple and effective and has seen him end a trophy drought. Fans can argue about the style and other things, but football remains a results business and Zinnbauer, in that regard has been delivering from whipping arch nemesis Kaizer Chiefs 7-1 on Aggregate to winning the club’s first trophy in 6 years.
If Pirates harbour any hopes of catching up with Sundowns, JZ is the right man to take to war. If I were to rate him out of 5, I would give him 3,5 because of the job he did last season and him being the only man to win silverware in the DStv Premiership era. #JZStays
Football Tshepo Out.
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