To say it has been a season of two halves for Orlando Pirates striker Tendai Ndoro could be the understatement of the 2016/17 campaign in South Africa.
The Zimbabwe international goes into the final two rounds of the league campaign still in contention for the Golden Boot, though he arguably should be out of sight.
Ndoro netted 12 goals in all competitions in his first 15 appearances for Pirates this season and was a runaway favourite for the top-scorers prize. But just a single goal in his next 18 games tells the story of a player so low on confidence that he appears almost too afraid to shoot.
Cape Town City forward Lebogang Manyama has now taken over as top-scorer in the league with 13 goals, one more than Ndoro's 12, and four ahead of Malawian international Gabadinho Mhango at Bidvest Wits and Polokwane City's Rodney Ramagalela, who both have nine.
Ndoro looks the shadow of the forward who confidently tucked away difficult chances up until December, before netting once for Zimbabwe during their short Africa Cup of Nations campaign in Gabon.
That said, his Swedish club coach Kjell Jonevret also feels that teams have got better at defending against the man who turned 29 on Monday, 15 May.
"As a striker, it is about confidence," Jonevret saids, before joking: "I was a forward, I always scored so I never had any problems with that, but I heard about it!"
As it is, Ndoro has lost his place in Pirates' starting line-up to Thamsanqa Gabuza (a much less 'refined' target man) in recent times, though Jonevret says he is pleased to have both options.
"We have him [Ndoro] and Gabuza, so we can change things around a bit. But also, the defenders know about him [Ndoro], so they know his skills and they are playing close."
Once Ndoro stopped scoring, so too did Pirates and Jonevret (who replaced erstwhile caretaker coach Augusto Palacios in late February) knows that adding at least one forward, maybe two, in the next transfer window is a must if the club are to be competitive next season. But he also admits he knows little of how the Irvin Khoza-owned club operates in the transfer market and says he "hopes" they will listen to his recommendations.
"I don't think I'm in charge of that," he says of transfer policy at The Buccaneers, where it's quietly a fact that one-time national coach Stanley 'Screamer' Tshabalala is Khoza's key advisor on football matters.
"We will sit down and discuss it. I don't know how they used to work at Pirates, I know we have a lot of players and loaned out a few, but I am not sure about the structure of how or when they get players out or in. "I hope they are going to listen to me a little bit!"