Hlatshwayo wasn’t ready for armband, says Pirates legend

Orlando Pirates legend Lucky Lekgwathi believes the only way Thulani Hlatshwayo can get his old form back is through the right guidance from senior players at the club, which will boost his morale following his poor displays since his arrival at the team last season.

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The former Bidvest Wits defender hasn’t had the best of starts at Bucs, which saw him making a number of costly mistakes last season, and even in the first three games of this campaign.

Hlatshwayo’s poor form has also seen the former Bafana Bafana captain left out of the national team squad – he is not in Hugo Broos’ selection for the upcoming Fifa World Cup qualfiers against Zimbabwe and Ghana.

Lekgwathi also believes that making Hlatshwayo captain on his arrival at Pirates put extra pressure on him.

“You know when you join a big team there are lots of things that you need to adapt to, it doesn’t matter whether you are a star or not, things are done differently at big clubs and you need to always be a step ahead. He hasn’t been himself since he joined Pirates and I think he needs to be guided well so that he can be the player that we all know,” said Lekgwathi.

“The senior players like Happy Jele have to guide him, they have to help me get back to his best because we haven’t seen him at his best since he got to Pirates. We know that he is one of the best defenders in the country, we saw it at Wits and even at Bafana Bafana. But, now I think joining Pirates and being given the armband really put him under a lot of pressure.”

Lekgwathi adds that Hlatshwayo knew that people expected the best out of him, and with that in mind, he is always playing with the mind-set of doing everything perfectly, but that has led him to making a lot of errors.

“He is always trying very hard to make sure that he doesn’t make mistakes and wants to do everything to perfection, but it hasn’t worked out. He needs to share responsibilities and like I said, learn from the guys who have been at the team for many years. If he starts doing that I believe we will start seeing progress in his game,” said Lekgwathi.