PSL strike legend Bunene Ngaduane believes more clubs in the country should start paying more attention to training goalscorers, as a lack of this has resulted in poor striking numbers in general over recent years.
The domestic season is likely to see yet another campaign where the top scorer would have not scored up to 20 league goals. As it stands, Bradley Grobler of SuperSport United is the top scorer in the PSL with 14 goals so far and three games left to play.
It is indeed something to worry about, that no top scorer in the PSL over the past eight years has managed 20 goals. It is even worse this term as none of the strikers from the big two of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates can boast of a respectable position on the scoring charts.
“Why isn’t there a striker coach when there is a goalkeeper coach and physical trainer in these teams? Is scoring not so important in football?” asks Ngaduane, who is the record club-scorer for Free State Stars with 79 goals, before he finished his PSL career at Moroka Swallows.
“I feel pain in my heart when I see strikers missing chances and this has nothing to do with muthi. Even if you go and get muthi from a sangoma he will tell you that you must still shoot. If you don’t shoot, then you won’t score. I know that us African people are obsessed about muthi but muthi cannot work without you shooting at goal and trying to do the right things.
“There are strikers who are having confidence because when they shoot and miss, they then start getting afraid of trying again. A striker must have that crazy confidence because you will keep getting chances since everyone is playing to get the ball to you.
“Scoring goals is a specialist position because that is what makes the difference in games. So, it is important for a lot of effort to be put into the art of scoring seeing how teams are putting so much effort in defending. Goalscoring is the most important job so it must be given the most attention so that those tasked with goalscoring make it a habit from training.
“I have realised that some guys take things easy at training and for me that is where you get it wrong. The way they miss goals at training is the same way they miss in games. You must be already serious at training so that by the time you play games you are carrying the same energy. Don’t wait for the match to make it right,” says Ngaduane, who was in double figures for five of the six-and-a-half years he played for Stars.