Zinnbauer overusing Lorch in striker position? [opinion]

Orlando Pirates' injury problems upfront has forced the technical team, led by Josef Zinnbauer to come up with new solutions.

Zakhele Lepasa, who was showing a lot of potential under the German is currently out injured, with Tshegofatso Mabasa, a target man joining him in the treatment table and Gabadinho Mhango also has injury issues, coming in and out of the team.

This has led to Zinnbauer and his technical team to come up with a new system that has seen Thembinkosi Lorch pushed further up to play as a number nine or a false nine in some instances.

The goal-scoring responsibilties as a result has fallen into the shoulders of Lorch, who so far has shown signs that the responsibility and pressure is too big for him.

Before Pirates played Cape Town City in the league, they lost to Golden Arrows 2-0 where Lorch missed a penalty, blasting his effort from 12-yards well over the bar.

It showed that pressure was too big for him and again after the breather in the Nedbank Cup where the Buccaneers laboured to a 1-0 win over second-tier side Uthongathi in the last 32, Lorch was guilty of missing a lot of big chances against Cape Town City, although he had an assist in Vincent Pule scoring the second goal.

Zinnbauer's charges were dominant against the Citizens, scoring two goals inside the first five minutes and could have won by a big margin if they were clinical.

Deon Hotto, who scored the first goal barely a minute into the match against City took some pressure off Lorch playing as a number nine but he too was guilty of missing some big chances.

So is the false nine system or playing midfielders in the strikers' role working for Pirates?

Against Arrows they also created chances but did not take them and if they didn't score those two early goals, the game could have ended goalless.

Zinnbauer has to trust the last striker he has at his disposal, Kabelo Dlamini to take up the role that was played by Lepasa, as he is a more natural finisher.

The Buccaneers are creating plenty of chances in their games since they had a problem of their first-choice strikers being injured but you can see that the likes of Lorch and Hotto are not used to finding themselves inside the box and miss easy chances.

Maybe it's time Zinnbauer throw Dlamini in at the deep end and play Lorch in his natural position, where he's more effective coming from deep and also take some pressure of scoring goals off his shoulders.