DURBAN – Molefi Ntseki believes there is a serious need for him to beef up his Bafana Bafana technical team if he is to make a success of his tenure as South Africa’s senior national team coach.
Ntseki currently has Arthur Zwane (assistant coach), Andre Arendse (goalkeeper coach), Trott Moloto (technical advisor), Kabelo Rangoaga (physical trainer) and Thulani Ngwenya (team doctor) as his back-up men.
The former SA Under-17 coach has now set his sights on appointing a scouting team.
“The technical team has done well in our last two camps. We don’t see any need to make changes, but if we were to do anything it will be to add more heads and more technical brains to the team. And they will be coming into the different roles that will be to the help of the team.
We’ve started walking now. We don’t have to run now. Let us get the balance right so that when we start running we are not going to fall,” Ntseki said.
Ntseki got off to a winning start when he led Bafana to a 2-1 win over Mali in the Nelson Mamdela Challenge in Port Elizabeth 10 days ago.
“The plan is to have a scouting team locally and another one that will help us with scouting international players. The plan is to have an analyst who will be able to give us the clips of the players abroad and those playing in South Africa.
That way, when we do our analyses and profiling of players we are bringing into the setup, we know which areas of their game still need some improvement and which areas of their game that will be of help to us,” he said.
The next assignment for Ntseki and his technical team is to face Ghana and Sudan in the qualifiers for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations next month.
“Yes, we will beef up our technical team. When that time comes, we would love to have a bigger technical team inclusive of a scouting team that will also be reporting to us,” Ntseki said.
Over the last years there has been an outcry that Bafana coaches don’t travel overseas to monitor the European-based players.
“Somebody asked me a question the other day on radio and said ‘coach, what do you do with players coming from overseas. Do you give them two caps and all of a sudden, we don’t see him again?’ My answer to that question was the scouting team will do it right,” Ntseki said.
The number of SA players plying their trade abroad is growing.
Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki has now set his sights on appointing a scouting team to assist his coaching efforts. Photo: Deryck Foster/BackpagePix
“It is not going to be about me as a coach. It will be profiling that will be presented to us to say a Dean Furman for example has got the qualities to add value to the national team even though he is playing overseas.
It is not going to be about me saying I want Dean Furman to come and then I give him two caps and all of a sudden, I don’t feel like he is the right player for the team. Or another coach comes in and he feels that no, Dean is not a player for him,” Ntseki said.
Ntseki selected a very strong team against Mali and Bafana fans were elated with his squad.
“We want to make it as much as we can that we are inclusive with proper profiling so that the player can come into the national team and can be of help,” Ntseki said.