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Ertugral keen to tighten up the Pirates ship

Cape Town - Orlando Pirates coach Muhsin Ertugral is determined to make the Sea Robbers' defence a virtually impenetrable one.

The Buccaneers have not leaked a lot of goals this season – six in six games. But, always striving for perfection, Ertugral feels there is room for improvement as he looks to cut out unnecessary goals conceded.

The Turk, who is in his first season at the club, believes there are other areas of general play which also need addressing.

"We are not playing that well at the moment, the patterns are not right, the organization is not that good, a lot of elements we need to look in to, we are definitely not very happy. We need to work better as a team, we are still having too much individual play," he explained.

"Even last season we had defensive issues, I didn't take over a team that conceded 15 or 20 goals, so I knew the challenge was there. We need to trust each other more, but new players have come in, others have left and no one has a magic stick, this takes time."

An issue Ertugral has to deal with is individuals' fatigue, whether that arises from playing too often domestically or by travelling away on national team duty.

"A player like [Abbubaker] Mobara, has played non-stop for two, three years," said Ertugral by way of example.

"His body is very, very tired. We don't make him look good when we insist he does things he just can't do at the moment.

"He's a young boy and has been completely over-played [during his time with Ajax Cape Town and in the national team] - we need to look at such things.

"We have players coming back from the national team, these are other things we must look into - they are human, not machines."

Pirates are next in action when they host Golden Arrows in a Telkom Knockout last 16 game on Sunday.

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