McCarthy on Broos’ selections: How can Bafana Bafana be successful with players who have not kicked a ball?

AmaZulu head coach Benni McCarthy has faulted the criteria used by South Africa coach Hugo Broos to pick players for Bafana Bafana ahead of the 2022 World Cup qualifying matches.

South Africa are drawn in Group G of the qualifiers and will open their campaign with a game against Zimbabwe at Zimbabwe National Sports Stadium on September 3 before they face Ghana at FNB Stadium on September 6.

McCarthy, who managed 79 caps for Bafana and scored 31 goals, believes Broos has made poor selections for the qualifiers.

What did McCarthy say?

“We select players who are not even playing at club level. Some have not kicked a ball for their teams this season but they are selected to the national team and we expect to be successful,” McCarthy said as quoted by Phakaaathi.

“Other national teams have local players who play week-in week-out, they don’t sit on the bench.

“If the international players are not released, the local-based players should be good enough to carry on when other players are not available. As to how we select players, it sometimes boggles me because I see players who are there based on what they did in the Cosafa Cup and last season.”

McCarthy continued: “Clubs feel that they pay big sums of money to sign players and for them to release players to national duty, especially when they have to leave Europe and come to Africa.

“They [complain] about the long journeys because African players always have to take two flights and then they have to play and when they go back, they arrive a day or two late for a big match. So there will always be that reluctance from clubs to let their players go.”

McCarthy calls for good relationships with coaches

McCarthy has further called on Safa to improve the relationship between national team coaches and coaches at the club level saying it will help a great deal when it comes to the naming of the Bafana squad.

“Managers should have an open network where they are able to talk to each other and look at the importance of different games because if there is no relationship between the national team coach and the club coaches, then you are always going to find that problem,” McCarthy continued.

“Sometimes, as a club coach, a player who is not playing in your team because he has a small injury and you don’t want to jeopardize the player’s career – is selected for the national team and he plays there.

“For this, club coaches feel disrespected because you don’t put your player’s well-being in jeopardy but he goes on and play for the country and when he comes back, you are now missing the player for two or three games because he went to the national team and aggravated his injury when he was on the verge of fully recovering.”