Palacios offers advice to successor

Cape Town - Orlando Pirates interim coach Augusto Palacios admits that whomever is appointed as head coach of the club will have his work cut out for him.

The 65-year-old mentor has endured a torrid period at the helm of Pirates since taking over from Muhsin Ertugral in December.

Pirates ended the year with a disappointing 2-1 loss against Bloemfontein Celtic - condemning the Soweto giants to their third loss under Palacios in his eight matches in charge, but the Peruvian has linked the poor string of results to the lack of character in the team.

"Any coach who will come in he will need to work," he told KickOff.

"If tomorrow I have to leave the team and someone comes in, that is not a problem for me. But the players need to be conscious and professional that this is a big club.

"All the goals that we have conceded in my eight games have been silly goals. It is very difficult when you don't know some players. I will be honest with you that I don't know some of the players who was in the team.

"Some of the new players are for the prospect but the team needs players with a lot of character and this is my clear answer.

"Whoever comes in I wish him the best but there is a lot of work to do. I tried different formations but then in some positions the team needs to be reinforced to be more solid.

"This club is not easy to play for and you need to have a strong character and personality to play for [it] but there is nothing I can do, I cannot put injection or trump up the feet or the mind of the players," he concluded.