Cape Town City striker Khanyisa Mayo has been getting lots of compliments lately, but his coach Eric Tinkler has held back his praises, instead, he has thrown a demanding challenge at the forward.
The 24-year-old striker notched the winning goal when his side downed Royal AM with a 2-1 scoreline on Saturday in the DStv Premiership.
It was his tenth of the season, which put him level with Monnapule Saleng and Bradley Grobler, who share the second spot.
When asked whether he would assist the striker in gunning for the golden boot, Tinkler said, “He’s got to help himself.”
Despite being City’s top goalscorer, Mayo hasn’t yet brought about what he’s capable of, according to Tinkler.
The Citizens gaffer has challenged the Bafana Bafana striker to make further strides if he wants “big opportunities” in his career.
ERIC TINKLER DEMANDS MORE FROM KHANYISA MAYO
“You know the fact of the matter is, since the beginning of the season, we’ve created plenty of opportunities,” said Tinkler.
“So, if I have to be brutally honest, Mayo shouldn’t be on ten [goals], Mayo should be on a lot more.
“Now, it’s turning those opportunities that are created into goals. Our strikers need to understand that.
“You watch leagues around the world. Ten goals is not really a hell of a lot for strikers.
“You should be doubling that, 20, 25, or somewhere there is where he should be aiming at.
“He needs to look to improve that come next season. If Mayo was scoring 30 or 35 goals, I don’t think he’d be here.
“Our league has always shown in the past. I think the last time I remember, Mbesuma got to 30 [25 goals in the 2004/05 season].
“And what happened to Mbesuma? Where did he go? He ended up at Portsmouth.
“It shows you, when you get to that amount of goals, you get opportunities in life. But composure…is many reasons.”
Tinkler stated that Mayo does it all very well during training but struggles to transfer those workouts to a match situation.
He feels that the Mthatha-born star could improve his goalscoring ratio if he works on his decision-making in front of goals.
‘ONLY HE CAN RESOLVE THAT’
“Final third, final pass, the quality of that final pass and that decision-making inside the box,” he continued.
“And us as coaches, there are a lot of things that we can work on in terms of the technique, but in terms of the composure and being in the moment, only the player can resolve that.
“He’s got to know where the pressure is coming from. Which way he should turn, and where is the area that he should be looking to shoot?
“And then sometimes pressure is a funny thing to the mind, to the brain.
“You put Mayo in situations in training where he’s just shooting for fun, and eight out of ten, he hits the target.
“Next day, he gets ten chances. He hits one. It’s about that psychological change in the mind that needs to happen.
“But only he can resolve that, no one can help him with that.”
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