Lamontville Arrows coach Manqoba Mngqithi wants his players to heed the harsh lessons from Tuesday’s five-goal thrashing at the hands of Orlando Pirates in their Betway Premiership clash in Soweto.
They will be forced to go through a proper analysis of the game, even if there is the temptation to try and forget about the drubbing as quickly as possible and turn their focus to their next game against Durban City on Saturday.
“I always want players to know exactly where we went wrong because, in my opinion, I have a big responsibility to teach,” explained Mngqithi.
“And the lessons learned here in Orlando may not sink in properly if we don't show them exactly where we went wrong so that we can improve and be a better team going forward.
“I know sometimes it's easy to say, especially at a big club, ‘you know, guys, it was a bad day at the office, let's just move on and forget about this game’, but for me, I think I have a responsibility to make sure that these players learn something from this experience.”
Mngqithi, who turns 55 later this month and is a former school teacher, won three league titles as co-coach at Mamelodi Sundowns.
He began his top flight coaching career at Arrows in the 2006/07 season and has now taken charge of more than 360 games.
“Sometimes, for others, it's a loss, but for me, when I look at the team that I have, there are still so many lessons to be learned for them to grow and come here next time being a better group or better bunch of players, because I think more than anything else, there were elements of fear, there was a lack of bravery, there was no courage,” he added.
“There are very nice lessons that we learnt. Deon Hotto is an example I use when I talk to my players because I think Hotto is a good football player. But his strengths are his intensity. The way he works, the way he runs, is a lesson for a younger player.”
“When you see Hotto’s age (35), and you look at the intensity with which he plays, and you can ask any of my players, I always make mention of him because I like the effort he puts into his game, and I see this culture is growing in this Pirates team. They run. You see, (Tshepang) Moremi is in that mode now. No laziness. You see (Masindi) Nemtajela works very hard.
“I realise my boys can still learn something if a team as big as Pirates can run like this. At halftime, I was saying, ‘If we cannot run like Pirates, and they are a bigger team than us, it means we are not hungry’.
“As a younger team and younger players, we should be having ambition. I expect them to work a little bit harder and never be overworked by any team.
“We can be naive, ignorant here and there, but the work ethic is something that we always pride ourselves on,” the Arrows coach said.