AmaZulu FC head coach Pablo Franco Martin has explained why Veli Mothwa has been on the sidelines lately, with Olwethu Mzimela playing ahead of him.
Mothwa last got a run for Usuthu in December when they lost to TS Galaxy in the Carling Knockout Cup. He has sat on the bench four times when Mzimela started and he has 15 appearances across all competitions in this campaign.
Meanwhile, Mzimela has featured six times, playing five DStv Premiership matches and one Nedbank Cup outing.
Mothwa was part of the Bafana Bafana squad that finished in third place at AFCON. However, he didn’t feature as Ronwen Williams played all minutes in the tournament.
According to Martin, the Usuthu shot-stopper was given a break when he came back and didn’t travel to Cape Town when they encountered Cape Town Spurs. However, he was on the bench in the last game against Royal AM.
Martin says they don’t pick the starting goalkeeper according to what their CV entails. He stated they go for the decision that will help them win the game.
PABLO FRANCO MARTIN ON VELI MOTHWA BEING ON SIDELINES
“It’s a matter of choices, as coaches we need to decide [who’s] ready to play the game,” said Martin.
“And this is not about names or passports, we’re not looking at the CVs of the players. We try to respect all of them, they all have my admiration.
“What we try to do, we go for those choices which are going to help us to win the game. And from there we’re saying, we are looking at all of them and they all have a chance that they are going to be ready.
“In this case, Veli came back very late from the AFCON and from there we thought it was normal to give him some days off.
“That was the reason he couldn’t be [with us] against Spurs but he’s coming back to the training. And from there we need him to go back to his level, it’s been a while for him not playing.
“But he’s going to [get back] and I hope very, very soon he’s challenging Oli [Olwethu Mzimela], he’s challenging Andile Mbanjwa. And three of them keep fighting for that position and the best out of the three of them will be the one playing the next game.”
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