Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has been encouraged by new striker Sebastian Pedersen’s qualities and desire to make an immediate impact at the club.

The Buccaneers claimed a 1-0 win over Sekhukhune United in their MTN8 semi-final first-leg clash thanks to a goal from Deon Hotto at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane

Pedersen made his debut for Pirates when he came on in the 65th minute to replace Yamela Mbuthuma.

Ouaddou praised the Norwegian’s intelligence, movement and technical ability, but believes Pedersen still needs to improve his fitness before he can fully adapt to the demands of the Buccaneers’ game model.

“I think he came with a lot of [desire] to score if he got a chance to open his goal-scoring account, he joined the fighting spirit of our team. You can see really that he’s clever,” said Ouaddou.

“He’s clever in the game, he’s going in the space that we want to find him. He’s able to find the deep. We’re able to find him in the pocket.

“His technique quality is very interesting. I’m sure that he’s going to really help the team. But like I said in the press conference, the basics in football, even if you have such quality, you need a good preparation.

“You need to be ready physically. We can see today that after 15 minutes, he was short physically. We are keeping working with him in order to bring him to the high level of the fitness that I want for my game model.

“Actually, he still needs to increase the physical work in order to be able to shine and to show his quality because he has quality.”