Soccerladuma | Manqoba, Zwane decision has Bafana consequences

The continued benching of Themba Zwane at Mamelodi Sundowns could lead to him losing his place in Bafana Bafana, head coach Manqoba Mngqithi has been warned. Mngqithi has triggered a backlash among the Sundowns supporters, after naming Zwane on the bench and only bringing him on as one of the options later in the games against Polokwane City and Stellenbosch in the MTN8. 'Mshishi' seemingly falling out favour under the 53-year-old coach has coincided with the Tshwane giants' struggles in these early stages of the season, after they needed extra-time to scrape past City via an own goal in the MTN8 quarter-finals and lost 1-0 to Stellies in the semi-final first leg.

Despite not starting the first two games for Masandawana, Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos gave the 35-year-old the benefit of the doubt, after including him in his latest 23-man squad to do duty in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. However, Broos has warned that should Zwane continue to play off the bench at Sundowns, he could lose his place in the national team, because a player of his age has to play, otherwise the performance drops. "At this moment I don't understand why he [Zwane] is not playing, is he suddenly being old? I don't know.



I'm not there, I don't see him at training. I think it's more tactical, why he's not playing," Broos told the media at SABC studios after announcing his squad. "But okay, that's the choice of a coach, I have to respect it.

But I don't think it will be a problem now [regarding Bafana selection], but if that goes on, it can become a problem, certainly for another player like him, [given his age], he has to play. "When a player like him is always on the bench, coming on for 20 minutes, you go down, so I hope that a new coach there is changing his mind a little bit and I see more from Themba at Sundowns than what I saw now," the Belgian added. Mngqithi's change of style, where he prefers wingers, rather than playing with a second striker, could affect Zwane's game time at Sundowns.

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