With speculation at one point hotting up that Edward Manqele could be a target for Kaizer Chiefs especially with the expected departure of Lehlohonolo Majoro, Soccer-Laduma looked at our exclusive Soccer-Laduma stats to see what he could offer Chiefs if he were to go to Naturena.
Recent reports suggest a move appears less likely to happen for Manqele to go to Chiefs, however it can’t be ruled out that a deal may still happen.
Interestingly, our stats show that Manqele possesses many similar attributes in the way Majoro went about his business upfront for Chiefs.
When Majoro was firing for Chiefs last season, he had an outstanding goals-to-minutes played ratio. Manqele boasts a similar high average for Moroka Swallows – he hits the back of the net roughly every 137 minutes for the Dube Birds.
Like Majoro, Manqele’s ability to hit the target consistently is also outstanding. In 2012/13, ‘Major’ had a shooting accuracy percentage of 57.41%. Manqele is actually slightly better with a 62% accuracy rating in 2013/14.
This seems to show both players are very accurate finishers and can be classified as both being natural goal scorers. However, both also don’t appear to get involved in the build-up play as much as say more naturally creative types of forwards like Knowledge Musona and Bernard Parker.
Manqele makes just 13.77 passes per game of which 82% are successful. This means like Majoro, Manqele is more likely to spend more of his time sniffing out chances to score rather than helping create pressure and chances for others with his link-up play.
This could be a slight negative because if the goals don’t come like they haven’t really for Majoro this season, it could mean Manqele wouldn’t be involved enough in the build-up play to warrant a start ahead of say Musona, Parker or Kingston Nkhatha.
This could be frustrating for the 26-year-old and he might increasingly find himself on the sidelines like Majoro experienced in 2013. Nonetheless, both are undoubtedly potent finishers and if Manqele was to go to Chiefs – he still has all the potential to be an asset just as Majoro was before him when things were going well.
The crew will monitor any developments regarding Manqele's possible future destination.
