‘Postman’ delivers, but late to get back on his bike

In the opening league match, Modiba was preferred at left back to 2021/22 PSL Defender of the season, Lakay. He scored a superb freekick in the second half which proved the match-winning goal, before Zwane put the seal on the victory. “Postman”, as he is nicknamed,

scored just one goal in his first 53 appearances in a Sundowns shirt and even that strike was actually a cross which sailed straight in.

In his last five matches though, Modiba has scored four goals! All of those outings saw him selected at left back and all four goals were sublime efforts. Against Royal AM in the Nedbank Cup semi-final, he broke the deadlock with a freekick. Against Sekhukhune, he scored a fine strike into the corner of the net from 30+ yards past Toaster Nsabata, which is no mean feat. Then against Chiefs, he met a deep Gaston Sirino cross to volley brilliantly past Bvuma. Despite those goals, he was only an unused substitute in the Nedbank Cup final against Gallants. Without doubt, if selected on Saturday, he has

the potential to be the match winner with the quality of his left foot from open play and dead ball situations.

The problem is that he has also shown some defensive weaknesses of late. Firstly, he is extremely adventurous but not as quick to recover his position as Lakay, which demands a lot of cover from the left centre-back. Against City, he arguably had five moments of disappointing defensive work. After 20 minutes, he dived in on Khanyisa Mayo, missed the ball and it led to a clear chance that was missed by Thabo Nodada. In the 35th minute, he was caught up-field, Lebusa was

pulled wide and a cross from Mayo was headed wide inside the box. In the 49th minute, he dived in on a City player and was yellow-carded.

After 73 minutes, Kajally Drammeh headed wide inside the box for Eric Tinkler’s side, with Modiba not tight enough. Then in the 82nd minute, he tried to intercept a pass, missed the ball and Drammeh raced in-behind and squared for a big chance, which Williams had to save. With these defensive weaknesses in mind, it’s a big call whether Sundowns start Modiba this weekend. Perhaps they could use him further forward, with Lakay at left back for his greater defensive nous. The problem for Amakhosi is that they don’t have a direct winger like Mayo to exploit Modiba and Dolly won’t enjoy having

to track back. Maybe this is a game for Kgaogelo Sekgota!