Golden Arrows head coach Manqoba Mngqithi has outlined the kind of matches in which Bafana Bafana could benefit from the inclusion of Mamelodi Sundowns striker Iqraam Rayners.
The 30-year-old forward has recently been overlooked by Hugo Broos, notably missing out on the AFCON tournament held in Morocco.
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He was also absent from the most recent squad during Bafana’s camp, where they faced Panama in two international friendlies as part of their World Cup preparations.
Mngqithi believes Rayners’ qualities become particularly valuable against stronger opposition, where South Africa are more likely to exploit space in behind the defence.
He pointed out that during AFCON, there were moments when such attributes were needed, with the team relying on Tshepang Moremi’s pace to stretch defences and attack open spaces.
“In my opinion, a striker like Iqraam Rayners is still amongst the best for the type of a national team and the personality that I think we need to have,” Mngqithi said in the Up Back Through Podcast.
“We need to consider the ability to play on the space behind. And I think that was shown even in AFCON when we played with Moremi to demand the space behind, we can be stronger against bigger nations.
“When we play with Iqraam, we can be stronger also against the bigger nations.
“When we play Lyle Foster, we must not work opposite his strengths because his strength, he’s a box striker.
“Against nations that we think we can dominate and put them on the sort, then we can have a Lyle Foster as our nine just to make sure that in the box we have presence.”
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