MIDFIELD ROLE SET TO GET RITCHIE BACK ON TRACK
him in the midfield, either out wide or as a central figure.
He did so in the 2-1 victory over Cape Town City on Saturday night and Ritchie rose the occasion before being replaced late by Cole Alexander.
“I think he’s a midfield player, I don’t think he’s a defender,” Hunt told TAB SPORTS NETWORK Express. “That’s just my opinion, but I’ve only had him a few weeks.
“He’s educated, he’s calm and he can pass it. At the moment he’s only 40 percent fit, but you know in our injury situation, we’ve got what we’ve got and we need to make do.
“We’ve worked on playing Ritchie in midfield and I thought he was fantastic, he can certainly play.”
Ritchie has only started 86 league games in almost nine years in the Premier Soccer League and abroad, a poor return for a player who is clearly talented.
Born in Alberton, Johannesburg, he played much of his youth career with SuperSport United’s juniors, Lusitano FC and Young Birds, which was the Moroka Swallows academy.
He made his top-flight debut as a 19-year-old against Santos in September 2009 and became an instant regular in the side, where his cultured left foot was a valued commodity. His delivery from set-pieces caught the eye, but he is yet to score a league goal in his career with both his previous strikes, one a penalty, coming in cup competitions in the 2010-11 PSL season.
Kaizer Chiefs were ahead of several clubs for the race for his signature and he jumped ship to Naturena in 2011, starting reasonably well for the AmaKhosi, but never quite managing to nail down a first-team place.
He won a move abroad in January 2014 to Slavia Prague in the Czech Republic and hoped that would be his springboard to Europe, but again he battled to win a regular first-team place and the team’s financial issues meant he returned South Africa after just six months.
He spent the following campaign on loan at Bloemfontein Celtic and the next season at Chiefs, before following coach Stuart Baxter to SuperSport, where he made only four league starts in 18 months.
He made a move to Wits in the January transfer window and with all their injury worries and a campaign in the African Champions League, now looks likely to be given a run of games.
TAB soccer punters should keep a keen eye him in the coming weeks because he could play a major role in continuing Wits massive upturn in fortunes.