Gabuza, who scored for Bafana Bafana in the 3-1 loss to Mauritania recently, started just one League match for Pirates last season but he’s fared better on the international front with seven starts and three goals in CAF’s Confederation Cup since March.
“For a player like Gabuza you can only be happy for him. He’s worked hard and he’s got a great attitude towards the game and he keeps the spirit good in our team. For him to be scoring at international level is good for him and I’m happy that he is doing well you know. I can only wish him the best,” Erasmus says.
Meanwhile, Pirates coach Eric Tinkler says the 28-year-old former Golden Arrows marksman has played a pivotal role in Africa.
He explains: “Gabuza has been exceptional for us. What we know is that he’s exceptionally strong aerially, [as well as] physically; he’s also very aggressive in terms of his style of play, and that hurts these teams on the African continent. A lot of the teams are very physical, [with] big central defenders and they come up against very physical strikers, and [Gabuza] harasses them to allow Kermit or [Lehlohonolo] Majoro to express themselves in finding spaces.
“I haven’t been particularly concerned [about his lack of scoring]. I know against AC Leopards he had some great chances to score, but I think if people look at what he does off-the-ball in that his aggression makes life extremely difficult for defenders, they’ll find that our two other strikers get a lot of time and space [on-the-ball],” Tinkler concludes.
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