Polokwane City head coach Phuti Mohafe has revealed the conversation he had with his captain Puleng Marema ahead of the side’s 2-1 league win over Golden Arrows, saying he pleased the skipper responded positively.
Marema was a first-half substitute and netted the winner in injury-time, helping City to only their second victory this season in the league that took them to eighth place on the log with nine points.
The last time the Rise and Shine veteran scored in the league was in the win over Magesi FC in September last year.
Mohafe said Marema is an important member of the squad and he needed to have a frank conversation with him and warned him he wouldn’t select the skipper in the future if he didn’t improve.
“Every player in this team is very important and we regard our players so highly,” said Mohafe.
“And for Marema as a captain, I scolded him during the week, possibly yesterday, because I was away on my on my coaching badges. I came back yesterday and on coming back I watched the last session with the coach, and I just took a wild guess.
“I called him aside, I told him about my dissatisfaction with his performance and he promised that ‘coach, for me to show you that I’m still the Marema that you know I will give you a goal tomorrow’. Then I said, ‘I hope you keep your promise, because if you don’t, I’m not ever going to play you in my team’. So he responded positively. He showed that he still has that willingness to play football.
“He’s still our captain. He has to take these boys, give them the lessons that they need to learn from the previous experiences that he had during his growth in football, and now, I think he has grown in leaps and bounds.”
