Vilakazi warns Pirates: Rethink squad strategy for success
Orlando Pirates legend Benedict Vilakazi has thrown down a clear challenge to head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou: rethink your squad strategy, or risk burning out in a season loaded with trophies and travel.
Pirates are chasing everything. They’re in the MTN8 final against Mamelodi Sundowns, juggling the Betway Premiership, waiting for the Carling Knockout and the Nedbank Cup, and already navigating the preliminary rounds of the CAF Champions League.
For Vilakazi, that calendar tells its own story.
“It’s very wise to have a bigger squad,” he told FARPost. “Look at the injuries that they are having right now.”
He didn’t have to dig deep for examples. Makhehlene Makhaula has picked up a knock. Thalente Mbatha is nursing a knee injury. Sihle Nduli “got hurt badly”. Those are not theoretical concerns; they’re players Ouaddou has already lost in the early stages of a marathon campaign.
Clash of philosophies
Ouaddou has been open about how he wants to work. The Pirates coach prefers a tight, controlled group: 30 outfield players and four goalkeepers. Go beyond that, he believes, and the dressing room becomes bloated, the competition unhealthy, the individual development of players compromised.
Vilakazi sees it differently. Where Ouaddou sees chemistry, he sees risk.
“So, it’s going to be important to have a bigger squad, especially when you look at the trophies that are on the table for the team,” he argued.
He then listed them, one by one, like a charge sheet against a small squad: the Betway Premiership, the MTN8, the incoming Carling Knockout, the Nedbank Cup, and the CAF Champions League.
“So, it’s very important to have a bigger squad so that you can rest other players. Maybe others will play in the Champions League, and others will play cup games,” Vilakazi said.
The message is blunt: rotation is not a luxury this season, it’s a necessity.
The hidden opponent: travel
Vilakazi’s warning doesn’t stop at minutes on the pitch. For him, the real trap lies between matches, in airports and on buses across the continent.
“It’s important to have a bigger squad so that your players don’t get fatigued,” he stressed. “Also, travelling plays a part in fatigue. That is one thing a lot of people don’t think of. Travelling can also cause fatigue.”
African club football is unforgiving. Long flights, awkward connections, late arrivals, hostile conditions. Teams often land back home with just a couple of days to prepare for a crucial league fixture. Fresh legs are not a tactical tweak in that context; they’re survival.
Vilakazi painted that picture clearly: the group that returns from CAF duty, he says, will sometimes arrive only two days before the next domestic game. That’s where, in his view, squad depth stops being a talking point and becomes the difference between a title challenge and a collapse.
“So that’s where you need a [big] pool of players,” he concluded, “so that those who went to CAF come two days before the other game, and at least you can add one or two to the team that is there and carry on with the team.”
A decisive moment for Pirates
The Betway Premiership race is tightening. The MTN8 final against Sundowns is looming. The Champions League journey has barely begun.
Ouaddou wants control and cohesion. Vilakazi is demanding numbers and insurance.
Only one approach will survive the grind of a season like this.
