SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo is planning to strengthen his midfield and strike force for next season‚ but he has ruled out wholesale changes.
Tembo is faced the challenge of replacing influential captain and defensive midfielder Dean Furman‚ whose contract will be up at the end of the season‚ and he wants to add more firepower up-front.
In central midfield‚ Tembo has Teboho Mokoena‚ Sipho Mbule and the inexperienced Jamie Webber and Oswin Appollis while his attack is led by Bradley Grobler and Thamsanqa Gabuza.
“We need to strengthen the squad for next season and the main areas we are looking at are central midfield and the strike force‚” said Tembo.
“We have confidence in ‘Tebza’ [Mokoena]‚ and Sipho in central midfield because they have done the job for us already. But it is not going to be easy to replace a player like Dean Furman.
“If we can’t find someone similar to him on the market‚ we will have to give opportunities to some of our players from the academy.”
Zimbabwean international Evans Rusike has played as a striker but Tembo uses him regularly as a winger with the likes of Kudakwashe Mahachi‚ Aubrey Modiba‚ Ghampani Lungu and Zama Rambuwane.
“Up-front we only have Bradley and Thami [Gabuza] but we will try to make additions to the strike force. If we can’t find a good striker out there in the market to supplement Bradley and Gabuza‚ we will give opportunities to one or two of the youngsters from within our system‚” Tembo said.
One of the players likely to benefit if United are not able to sign a striker is 20-year-old Khanyisile Mayo who has already featured in two league matches so far this season.
Khanyisile is the son of former SuperSport‚ Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana Bafana striker Patrick Mayo who also was converted into a defender at Naturena towards the end of his career.
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