Title race a marathon – Abdeslam Ouaddou warns Orlando Pirates players

The Buccaneers climbed to the top of the table after a composed 2-0 victory over Durban City at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, finally making up their games in hand and overtaking defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns. 

Pirates’ surge – nine wins in their last 12 league outings – has shifted the momentum firmly in their favour.

Ouaddou acknowledged the side’s early stumbles in their opening two fixtures but stressed that the objective has always remained the same. 

"I think any coach who is training at such a big club, when you come to such a big club it's his target. So, of course it was our target, not only mine but it's a collective work, I'm not working alone,” Ouaddou said.

“It's an objective but now like I said before, it's a good thing to reach that position at the half of the season but the most difficult thing is to stay in that position. To stay in that position, we have to keep working because there is lot of very good sides, very good teams in this PSL. 

“The level is very high and if you are not focused, if you stop working, if you think that you already won the title, it can be very difficult. So, I press my players to keep focus, to keep working because this PSL is a very high level. It's one of the best in Africa."

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Ouaddou says he was always confident of the work behind the scenes paying off in the midst of early criticism. 

"When you start a new project with a lot of new players, people have to adapt to your ideas, to your game model. Sometimes it takes time but I'm happy that the guys now understand what I'm looking for,” he added.

“It's good for us, it's good for the players, it gives us trust, it gives confidence for the rest of the season but like I told you, it's not finished, we still have five months. So, let's keep working hard in order to reach our target."