Former Bafana Bafana, Kaizer Chiefs, and Orlando Pirates striker Marks 'Go Man Go' Maponyane admits there is a striker crisis in South Africa.
The legendary South African striker says coaches should come out and tell us why are we seeing fewer goals from strikers in the Premier Soccer League.
Although some DStv Premiership clubs are only left with 12 matches to wrap up their season, the league's leading scorer Lucas Ribeiro of Mamelodi Sundowns has so far scored only 10 goals, thanks to midweek's hat-trick against AmaZulu FC.
"By the way, Ribeiro is not even a regular and he is a foreigner," Maponyane tells KickOff.
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"And we've been talking about this from the days of Tico Tico Bucuane. Peter Shalulile also came and took over. And last season he shared the top scorer award with Khanyisa Mayo.
"So it is a concern, I remember the days of the Zimbabwean Wilfred Mugeyi, he was a hitman.
"In the past, we had strikers like Calvin Petersen, Les Grobler... We didn't have too many foreign strikers. So the problem is here at home. The only South African striker who has been promising is Bradley Grobler. The thing is Khanyiso Mayo is not an out-and-out striker.
"Our striker crisis it's a serious one because it even goes to the national team Bafana Bafana. Our hopes at AFCON were pinned on one out-and-out striker because you can't tell me Zakhele Lepasa delivered.
"Evidence Makgopa he played well, created spaces and would worry the oppositions, but still we can't look at the returns with a smile.
"Here at home a hat-trick is something far fetched, there are only two of them, it's the one Sede Junior Dion of AmaZulu scored against Golden Arrows in the quarter-finals of the Carling KnockOut, and also the recent one from Ribeiro.
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"We all know the problem, but now we need to come up with a solution, collectively. Calvin Petersen is still alive, Mike Mangena, Noel Cousins, Les Grobler, Shaun Bartlett... We need a collective solution from these former strikers.
"It's a fact we do have striker crisis, and it's been years now. And coaches will always tell you the same thing I was told when I was still on the touchline, Marks we haven't scored in the last three games but at training these boys are banging them in, we working on these things.
"Coaches work with these strikers, so they should be able to tell us what is the problem."
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