Durban — Every season there are players who miss the mark completely, either through their own fault or no fault of their own.
On Tuesday, IOL Sport’s Eshlin Vedan takes a look at a number of players in the DStv Premiership who underachieved this season despite being hyped.
5. Pavol Safranko (Sundowns)
This might be considered harsh as Safranko has looked decent when he has played and proven that he can score goals on a regular basis. However, he was expected to help ease the scoring burden on Peter Shalulile for Sundowns and given that he is a fully capped Slovakia international, expectations were high for him.
Safranko probably would have scored several more goals if injuries didn’t regularly come to him. His injury record is deeply worrying and if Sundowns cannot solve it, they will have to consider bringing in a new striker soon to support Shalulile or replace him if an overseas club comes calling. Right now, Safranko is probably not the man who can easily be depended on to potentially replace the Namibian.
4. Samir Nurkovic (Kaizer Chiefs)
Nurkovic has scored some memorable goals for Kaizer Chiefs over the years but this season was truly a disaster. He appears to have been figured out by most top-flight South African clubs in the same way that Jeremy Brockie was when he left SuperSport United to join Sundowns. It will be best for Chiefs and Nurkovic to part ways at the end of the season.
3. Abraham Majok (AmaZulu)
Benni McCarthy brought in the former Australia youth international earlier in the year to boost AmaZulu’s frontline. Instead, Majok failed to add any quality to the Usuthu frontline and unsurprisingly has failed to add any goals to the team. He looked out of place when called upon and has not been utilized since Brandon Truter succeeded McCarthy at the helm of the Durban based club.
Majok’s time at AmaZulu is a good symbolic representation of McCarthy’s final few weeks at the helm of AmaZulu. It was a disaster.
2. Itumeleng Khune (Kaizer Chiefs)
There was some hope that Khune could revive his career this season but it has appeared to have declined further. Khune is nowhere near the Amakhosi first team picture and is unlikely to play for Bafana Bafana again unless something drastic happens.
Khune now has two choices, he should either go into coaching in the near future, retiring or look for another club. He could still add value on and off the field to a mid-table club.
1.Thulani Hlatshwayo (Orlando Pirates)
After a difficult first season at Pirates after arriving in 2020, this was expected to be the season when Hlatshwayo finally began to shine especially as he did show that he was one of the most dependable defenders during his time with the now defunct Bidvest Wits.
Pirates fans would have expected Hlatshwayo to be the man to finally inspire them to a league title but that has not happened and it does not appear likely to happen at all. Pirates still need to do a lot of work before they can think about challenging for the league title again. There is a bit of a gulf in class between themselves and Sundowns and they need to reinforce their defence. They need to think about the possibility of replacing Hlatshwayo.
IOL Sport