Baxter’s first step on road to big change
PERHAPS as a sign that there’s an incredibly large pool of players from which Stuart Baxter can build his new team, the Bafana Bafana coach had to answer more questions about the ones he’d left out of his 25-man squad than those he’d selected.
The omission of Siyanda Xulu, Thapelo Morena and Luvuyo Memela, among others, dominated the Q and A session with Baxter when he announced the team to take on Zambia, Zimbabwe and Angola in the Four Nations tournament at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola next week.
“The door is certainly not closed,” the coach explained.
Baxter has said he is building a new team, in which youth and experience will merge in an effort to qualify for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon and the World Cup in 2022, having failed to make it to this year’s event with the old guard.
“This is a big first step in making some big changes, attitude, perception and personnel. This is about development,” Baxter said of his selection.
“Some regulars won’t get to play, but this does not mean they are not for the future. I have sent texts to a lot of players to say the door is not closed for any of them. We have our experience here, but that may change. I don’t want to close the door for the young players either. Morgan (Gould), Ronwen (Williams), Reyaad (Pieterse) and Clayton (Daniels) know that I am aware of their credentials, and that doesn’t go down the toilet. I hope they don’t feel they are not in my thoughts.”
Xulu at Maritzburg United, Morena at Mamelodi Sundowns and Memela for Orlando Pirates have been noticed by many, but there was some surprise when Baxter did not call them up.
“When I came back to SA I was interested to see how Siyanda was doing. Mentally he lost his way a little bit. That happens. It has happened to better players before. He has just started again to show the sort of potential I thought he had back then,” Baxter said of Xulu, now with Maritzburg.
“I don’t want to confuse him by picking him in the team. He is younger and he can play in a three-man defence, fullback and all that. I want him to carry on at club, but we must let him keep working on it right now instead of making him think he has arrived. I wanted to have a look at (Daniel) Cardoso instead, who has done well at Chiefs. Xulu is going to be looked at down the road for sure.”
His reasons for not picking Morena and Memela were not as convincing.
“It was either him or Reeve (Frosler), who was at World Cup with a junior team and would have been at the World Cup this year to learn, that’s more important. There are a lot of players in that category. Memela has been good for Pirates, but not for this fixture. I would have to leave out Teboho Mokoena or Ryan Moon to make space for him.”
Baxter has also asked Pirates assistant coach Rhulani Mokwena to join Bafana for the trip to Zambia to continue to learn.
@superjourno