Kaizer Chiefs youngster Mfundo Vilakazi is known for his showboating skills whenever an opportunity presents itself.
It is a style also associated with Orlando Pirates midfielder Patrick Maswanganyi who has been tipped to take over from aging Themba Zwane in the Bafana Bafana team.
The Glamour Boys coach Nasreddine Nabi and Jose Riveiro of the Sea Robbers seem to have no problem with it. But Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi won't tolerate such and has further explained why he loves finishing opponents off as early as possible.
I can substitute you immediately – Mngqithi
“It requires a very big paradigm shift because, in our society, we have accepted that after we have taken a lead, probably it’s an opportunity for showboating and doing all these tricks, and it’s acceptable in the society,” Mngqithi said ahead of the Carling Knockout final against Magesi FC on Saturday.
“Everybody thinks you have done enough when you have won the match, and you have also had some nice tricks and made fools of the opponents.
“But personally, I regard opponents as opponents and as not as enemies. As an opponent, I always believe you want to beat your opponent, so that next time he knows who are you, not as an enemy, but as an opponent.
“No, I don’t want to make a laughing stock of you. You will see most of my players, they hardly do all these tricks after we’ve taken a lead, because I can substitute you immediately,” Mngqithi stated.
“Because for me, what excites me is to see the ball touching the net. I like that, and I’ve always been like that from time immemorial.”
Possession is not enough without goals
The former AmaZulu coach then explained why he loves to see his team score as many goals as possible.
“I think the reason why I became a football coach is because I want to influence a team to try and create a lot of scoring opportunities and score a lot of goals, and I get excited when a game has got a lot of goals – no matter how good the game can be, sometimes, because I’ve been in football for so many years, where you can dominate the game and look so good, everybody’s excited you were leading 1-0 and in the last minute, the opponent scores. It’s 1-1, and then what?
“So, for me, goals are the determining factor on the result, and thus we should be targeting to make sure that we play to score as many goals. And if we say we are better than the opponent, it’s because we can score more than them,” Mngqithi continued.
“I don’t think possession is enough without creating a lot of scoring opportunities, because when you look at that possession, sometimes it’s in all the wrong areas. You've had so much possession because the opponents were sitting deep and you were playing in front of them and enjoying all the time, having as many passes in front of them. But that does not mean you managed to break down the strategy that they had brought up to make sure that they don’t concede a lot of goals.
“Then as a coach, you must say, ‘what did I bring to try and make sure that even when they were trying to put a low block or whatever, I still managed to force my way and score as many goals as possible’”.
Sundowns will be aiming at winning the Carling Knockout after falling short in the MTN8.
