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Downs Coach Disagrees With Broos Over Jali
Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi has expressed his disbelief in Hugo Broos’ assessment of Andile Jali.
The Masandawana midfielder has been overlooked by Broos since he took over as South Africa national team.
Many have been surprised by Broos’ continued omission of the in-form midfielder, with the Belgian tactician previously stating that he is looking for a more aggressive player in Jali’s position.
Mngqithi, though, has rebuffed Broos’ reasoning, explaining why he doesn’t agree with his judgement of the Downs midfielder.
“Andile’s main strength is his aggression and arrogance in the middle of the park,” he told Thabiso Mosia on MetroFMSport.
“He’s bossing and it’s that mentality that has kept him in our team, he has a very good match temperament.
“He’s that guy that galvanises every other player in the team and says ‘boys, let’s go and fight’.
“He is some sort of a leading Napoleon that is gathering everybody around to say ‘we are ready for the fight’.
“When a player like Andile is deemed not to aggressive, then I wonder who is more aggressive than him in our midfield, probably with the exception of Mothobi [Mvala].”
Mngqithi also criticised Bafana’s display during their 5-0 defeat to world champions France, saying previous national team sides looked much better against the European nation.
“I don’t think we were truly represented there,” he added.
“If you consider that when the French fans heard they would be playing Bafana Bafana, the tickets were sold out fast, not even in a day, because they were anticipating a really fierce contest because they know what South Africa is capable of.
“But there we go and do what we did there and it really, really was an egg on our face.
“I don’t think we’ll get the same reception again in France based on our performance the last time around, unless we can do better in our friendly matches and our other qualifiers and show that we’ve got better quality than what we showed.
“Because what we showed was far below the level of all the other coaches that we’ve had in Bafana, because we’re not playing France for the first time. We had beaten France before, we have drawn with France before.
“We’ve got the capacity to meet France and do well, it’s not like it was the first time we were playing against France.”
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