Speaking after their 1-1 draw with Cape Town City, TS Galaxy head coach Sead Ramovic has hailed Macbeth Mahlangu as the best defender in the DStv Premiership, and couldn’t resist to send another small dig at Rulani Mokwena.
Mahlangu and defensive partner Pogiso Sanoka have been ever-present this campaign, having featured in all 27 of Galaxy’s league games thus far.
When asked about their importance to the team, Ramovic waxed lyrically about the pair and said he feels that Mahlangu is the best defender in the league.
“It’s a huge quality when you see Sanoka, he played now, when I came I think the last two seasons, now the last one we concede, I think the third least goals in our league, and he played with Given [Msimango],” Ramovic responded.
“So Killer [Mahlangu] was training on the time when he could not play because Given also played well. So he had a fantastic attitude.
“And he trained a lot and he trained fantastic so when he got a chance he gripped it and I put Killer for me is the best defender in our league. That is my opinion, because I see him every day.
“Sanoka is a fantastic player also that’s why we also have I think the third least goals now close to Stellenbosch. So we are again fantastic in the defence because I always say if you defend well, you attack better. And this is what we do.
“We also improve in the offensive part but we still have to improve the last pass and the scoring thing in front of the goals when we get great opportunities like we got those in the last two games.
“But the good thing is that we are very happy about the process. Because when we talk about the expectation, what is the expectation for a team like us?
“If you don’t have this financial power, your expectation is if you stay in the league, it is a must, but if you reach the top eight, it’s a fantastic season. If you reach the top five is like you won the league for us, because every team, of course every club has his expectation, how much you invest in the expectation is of course higher and if we reach the top eight, in my view, we will celebrate it just the same as we will win the league.
“For this one, and then maybe the next season, we will see where we stand, how much financially we get in, how much we can spend.
“Because the last two and a half seasons we did not spend, we sold seven key players to one of the best clubs. Show me one team that sold three players to all three big teams, show me one team that lose seven key players and after that reach the cup final after that is number five in the log, one team?”
Ramovic continued to praise his technical team and with Galaxy still to play the league champions again on the 21st, he couldn’t resist taking a subtle dig at Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Mokwena once more.
“So I have to give a lot of credit to my entire coaching staff,” he contiuued.
“I’m the smallest part, I don’t need this attention, like somebody mentioned about me that I like to have attention. I don’t like attention, because I played in one of the best leagues, and the other one probably played badminton.
“So I don’t like but the thing is that I want that my players start to get recognised because they’re playing a fantastic season. And they have a fantastic character. And they show it every day until now.
“And I think we are playing one of the best football in our league, if we are honest. We can of course improve but the expectations and what we show I think we show even more, and I and I still believe not many of you guys believed before the season starts, that we could fight still to be in the top five.”
