How Abdeslam Ouaddou plans to instill killer instinct at Pirates | OneFootball

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Ouaddou on methods to address lack of cutting edge

Photo: Abdeslam Ouaddou

Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has given a breakdown of how he plans to instill the killer instinct in the Bucs camp.

The Buccaneers suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time since August 2025, as they lost to Mamelodi Sundowns and Casric Stars in the Betway Premiership and Nedbank Cup, respectively.

Pirates were made to rue their wastefulness in both matches, much to the discontent of Ouaddou, who has since shed light on how he intends to solve the issue, having been vocal about the lack of cutting edge.

“To instill this killer instinct is not easy because this comes from the mental. If I have to use a metaphor or an image - you need to be hungry in front of the goal,” said the 47-year-old tactician, who has lifted the MTN8 and the Carling Knockout Cup with the Sea Robbers this season.

"I think you need to have it, but how can we develop it? It's in daily work, to work individually with the players, to minimise the time of the decision making, to create situations of the games without pressure but with the pressure as well.

"Without the pressure why? Because you need to give the time to the player, for the first touch, for the decision making but to adjust and to memorise the goal. I think it's the first step to take because the confidence is very important.

He continued: "If you put an opponent quickly on him [a player], he will not gain this confidence and step by step when he starts to have this confidence, you have to add pressure on the drills to bring some more opponents and pressure to help him.

"So, there's many ways to do it but you need to be patient, especially when you work with the young players, it's very important to be patient and to make video [analysis] with them, show them clips about the position of the body, the position of the foot, how he take the ball, how he visualize the goal - I think it's very important but you need to be patient.