Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi has given a hint that Iqraam Rayners could finally make his debut for the club this weekend, but there is one challenge he has admitted to having with the striker.
Rayners, who returned to Chloorkop from international duty with Bafana Bafana on Thursday morning, was unable to make his debut for the Brazilians in the MTN8 because he was cup tied after joining the Tshwane giants from Stellenbosch FC.
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That opportunity to feature in the famous yellow and blue jersey for the first time looks set to come this weekend when Sundowns take on Eswatini outfit Mbabane Swallows in the first leg, second preliminary round match at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday. The Eswatini champions are playing their home match in Atteridgeville because none of their stadiums have been approved by CAF.
"I must say he (Rayners) has done very well. He has only played one friendly match with us and he has scored already, so we are looking forward to seeing more because the reason we brought him here is because we believe he has goals and that's what we have been lacking. And to be honest, we still have Peter who has not scored, whom we know has got goals. We have Lucas (Ribeiro Costa) whom we know has got goals. We've got (Thapelo) Maseko whose got goals. We've got quite a lot of players who can give us goals. Arthur Sales can give us something. Iqraam did not get as many game minutes during the FIFA break and maybe that might give us a little bit of an edge to try to use him for this match as well," Mngqithi told media during a press conference held at Chloorkop on Thursday.
Mngqithi has admitted that he has the tough task of making sure that he does not cause commotion in the dressing room by how he integrates the former SuperSport United striker into the team. He wants to do it while ensuring the rest of the squad that they still have a fair shot of getting into the team.
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"It's a little bit of a tough one, to be honest, because you also don't want to induce stress and pressure on him. It's very important we manage that arrival and integration because it can also destabilise our changeroom because sometimes we as coaches tend to look down on what we had before other players arrived and that makes a very big difference and can cause a lot of problems in the changeroom," Mngqithi said.
"I do believe that when you bring in a player like Iqraam is because you want him to add on what we have. It's not that we want to minus certain individuals in the team and it becomes very bad when at the beginning of the season you have not scored goals and now you want to prioritise making sure you use particular players at the expense of other players, because you don't want to kill anyone. You want everybody to remain with the belief that 'I still have a chance here'. If you just hand it over to Iqraam without him working hard for it, it might also kill that other player that starts to realise that maybe their time at the club is up. So, it's very important that you manage that integration well and not create unnecessary commotion in the group."
