Golden Arrows coach, Manqoba Mngqithi, has questioned Bafana Bafana tactical area following early exit from the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Mngqithi has doubted Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos experiences and tactical decision following their 16 round knock out on Africa Cup of Nations.
Mngqithi, speaking on Prime Time Sports on UKhozi FM, suggested that Broos deviated from the clarity and decisiveness that earned Bafana a bronze medal at the last AFCON.
“Hugo did a lot well that we have to commend him for but in this AFCON I don’t think he was as focused as he was in the previous one,” said Mngqithi.
“The mistakes he made in this one were elementary ones because I think he is a top coach.”
A key concern for the Arrows mentor was Broos’ team selection, particularly his decision to bench Tshepang Moremi and Aubrey Modiba — two players who had impressed earlier in the tournament.
“If I can make an example with the Cameroon game…,” Mngqithi continued.
“He made a mistake by benching two players who had played impressively before – Moremi and Modiba.”
Mngqithi felt the tactical plan failed to exploit Cameroon’s aggressive approach, especially on transition — an area where Bafana could have hurt their opponents.
“Before the game, I was thinking that we would need to have people that would exploit the space behind Cameroon,” he said.
“Moremi would have been the best candidate for that because we knew that Cameroon would try to come at us.”
“We should have had a plan that if they come at us and we want to hit them with a counter, we must know what we have behind their defence,” he explained.
There were moments that hinted at what could have been, with Modiba delivering dangerous balls into the box once introduced.
“It showed when Modiba put in two good balls into the box, Mudau or Foster should have scored one of them,” Mngqithi noted.
Despite his criticism, Mngqithi stopped short of discrediting Broos’ overall work, instead framing the elimination as a lesson missed rather than dominance conceded.
“But the truth is I think in this tournament, we were not beaten, we beat ourselves,” he concluded.
