The story of Kermit Erasmus’s return to Orlando Pirates was met with jubilant celebrations from Orlando Pirates fans. It was more a case of Romeo returning to his Juliet.
The Orlando Pirates forward had a successful stint with the club before; he played in eighty-five matches across all competitions and scored twenty-four goals.
With Orlando Pirates shooting blanks earlier this season, Erasmus was seen as a perfect solution to their goal drought.
Amabhakaniya were playing some beautiful attacking football, they only needed someone to put the ball at the back of the net, and Romeo has all the tools of the trade.
Twelve matches later, Romeo is yet to make it rain goals at Orlando Pirates. He has managed only two goals and two assists, not really living up to the hype of his return to Orlando.
But what could be the reason for his low goal count?
To be fair to Kermit, he spent a long time on the sidelines at Mamelodi Sundowns.
To expect him to hit the ground running at Pirates was always going to be too much an expectation. He still needed time to get his match fitness, sharpness and confidence back.
On top of that, he was joining a new club, and needed to adapt to the new environment and the coaches’ tactics.
Maybe two goals and two assists are not too bad a return on investment.
On the other hand, Romeo doesn’t look like his lethal self on the field of play. Even during his time at Mamelodi Sundowns, he wasn’t really firing on all cylinders.
Maybe it is the injuries and age catching up with him.
Which leads to the question, can we expect him to deliver more than he is doing at the moment?
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To answer that question, we first have to look at what has been happening with Orlando Pirates in the transfer market.
The Buccaneers have brought in Ndumiso Mabena from Royal AM, and Marou who comes highly recommended from Cameroon. There is also Evidence Makgopa who is working hard to get back to his best.
If Romeo doesn’t get back to his best soon enough, and start hitting the back of the net more, chances are he will see less game time.
With less game time, it will be back to default settings for him. No happiness like he was at Mamelodi Sundowns.
He needs to get his mojo back, while there is still time, before the likes of Marou, Mabena and even Makgopa, start doing what he should be doing.
