Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams has opened up on the erratic squad selections of head coach Hugo Broos when he first arrived.
Broos was a shake-up in every sense of the word when he succeeded Molefi Ntseki as the leader of the South Africa national team in May 2021.
It was in the wake of failure to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, the nation he won the title with back in 2017.
But his first few squads saw several senior players being snubbed with a ‘youthful approach’ added to some inexperienced players who starred at the Cosafa Cup in 2021.
The likes of Bongokuhle Hlongwane, Ethan Brooks, Evidence Makgopa, Nyiko Mobbie were integral parts of his side, with ‘Bongi’ in particular then earning a move to Major League Soccer and becoming a key figure in the national team.
However, it was the bench that caused some debates as most, if not all had not had more than 10 senior international caps for the country at the time.
“It was difficult, you could see coach wasn’t sure [about his squad] and that obviously rubbed off on us and we weren’t sure,” Williams admitted at the 10bet x Bafana breakfast.
“But in saying that, we had good results then in the World Cup qualifiers, so that’s just the spirit he has as a coach, he can play with any eleven players and make you believe you can win.
“That’s the main thing and he always tells you, you are here for a reason, I don’t give out caps for the sake of it, he says when you walk in this door, you must perform and you carry the hopes of more than 50-million people.
“So he won’t play with his job like that and ya, over the last year we’ve learnt the hard way, losing to France, losing to Morocco, losing to Ghana and he felt we’re not physically strong enough and you can see now we have a bigger team.
“When I look back, when we won the AFCON back then, the squad was big, from the goalkeeper right to the striker, may his soul rest in peace, Phil Masinga, Mark Williams, all physical and big and Africa is difficult, very physical.
“And coach [Hugo] realised that we’re a very small nation, and you can see we’re a big team now which helps.”
