Mobara: Orlando Pirates have the quality to win the PSL title this season

Orlando Pirates defender Abbubaker Mobara feels that they have enough quality and depth to mount a serious challenge for this season's PSL title.

The Buccaneers, who are busy searching for a permanent head coach, are now nine points behind league log leaders SuperSport United, but the former have a game in hand.

Augusto Palacios, the Bucs caretaker coach, has been under pressure since late last year due to the team's struggles in the league and they are still placed 10th on the PSL table after drawing 0-0 with Platinum Stars in midweek.

“I think when the chairman (Irvin Khoza) is ready to hire someone permanently, he will. Right now coach Palacios is in charge and we have not been told anything different," Mobara to the Weekend Argus.

"We have been unlucky with results, especially the goalless draw against Platinum Stars on Wednesday. We had such an impressive mid-season break, winning our friendly games and showing we can still compete. So it came as a bit of a shock when we couldn’t win our first game of the year," he said.

“It’s the perfect time to show our skills and ability. We are not saying it is going to be easy against Sundowns. We are going to have to concentrate until the final whistle."

The South Africa international, who joined Bucs from Ajax Cape Town prior to the current season, stressed the importance of beating defending league champions Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday in order to stay in contention for the PSL title.

"I remember playing against Pirates when I was at Ajax and we always raised our game. Sundowns won’t be different in their approach, but our team has to be unified and not complain that results haven’t gone our way recently. We had a fantastic little mid-season break, and we need to build on that," Mobara continued.

“We expected to hammer Platinum Stars, to be honest. It’s only a matter of time before we click. We still stand a good chance of winning the championship, we just have to start collecting points."

"We can’t keep settling for draws, neither can we keep losing. We have to go back to the drawing board and work harder, analyse the teams we play against and show what we are capable of doing," he added.

"I mean we have a lot of brilliant individuals in the team and we have to put it together and make it work. There’s a lot of understanding and joy at training, no negative vibes," Mobara concluded.