Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi has told Soweto teams that they promoted Sphelele Mkhulise to understudy Themba Zwane and “he is not going anywhere.”
This comes after the player was linked with a to either of the Soweto giants.
He was speaking ahead of the CAF Champions League second-leg clash against La Passe on Friday
“Even those who claim to get him away from us, they have got no chance. He is not going anywhere,” he said.
The ex-Golden Arrows mentor also heaped praise on Mkhulise, citing that is one of the best offensive players South Africa has ever produced.
However, Mngqithi is more concerned with the 26-year-old midfielder’s lack of assisting the assisting or assisting and scoring.
MNGQITHI ON MKHULISE…
“I think is something nice and refreshing when I hear the boy talking the way he talks because this is the kind of talks I have with him and the other coaches,” he told the media.
“The reason why we promoted him is that we wanted something close to Themba Zwane, something that could really help us in the attacking third.
“His game has been lacking either assisting the assist or assisting or scoring. That is what we have been working hard on and that is what we are trying very hard to improve because properly out of all of you less than 50% of you know that he is a good dribbler.
“Very few people know that [he is a good dribbler] because he is an introvert and he plays a game that is not arrogant as we would like it to be. A little bit of arrogance for offensive players makes them tick and to be always in the position that will determine the result of the game.”
Mkhulise was promoted to the first team back in 2018 from Sundowns’ development ranks. The talented footballer also served as a ballboy to some of his teammates.
HOW MMNGQITHI VALUES MKHULISE
With all being said, Mngqithi reckons that the Pietermaritzburg-born is a player that one can rely on when the team is not playing well.
“In terms of establishing and consolidating our play, he is one player that we know when we are not playing very well we will always go back to him to say make the team to play,” explained Mngqithi.
“But is not good enough because when you make the line-up we look at these all metrics, expected goals, assists, runs into the box and all these metrics if they don’t come right for an offensive player, it ends up creating problems for the player but fortunately he [Mkhulise] is a boy that I speak a lot with and I can see the improvement that we are all looking from him.”
