PSL players and coaches need to up their game | The Citizen

It is always difficult to get on the stage right after the best dancer walks off. That is the sense you get ahead of the return of the DStv Premiership, which comes right after a football treat in the way of the Fifa World Cup.

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Football fans were not only spoiled rotten with tons of fixtures over the last few weeks, but those games were of high quality.

Of course, you cannot expect the DStv Premiership to produce the same quality that was seen in the World Cup, but the honours is now on local teams to at least gravitate towards the same standards and improve the quality of our football.

After all, the Premier Soccer League is glorified as the best league on the African continent and they need to live up to that billing.

Maybe the starting point would be to adopt similar styles of plays, or try out different formations because as the age old saying goes — ‘it is not a bad thing to copy something good’.

Mamelodi Sundowns sent their coaches and technical director to Qatar and rest assured that Rulani Mokwena, Manqoba Mngqithi and Steve Komphela learned a thing or two during their visit, and will certainly adopt some new strategies to improve Masandawana.

The total tally of 172 goals were scored in 64 games while the DStv Premiership has produced 201 in 200 games played so far.

That is about a goal a game and it speaks of the poor conversion rate in the league as the joint top goalscorers, Bradley Grobler of SuperSport United, Sundowns’ Peter Shalulile and Kaizer Chiefs striker Caleb Bimenyimana have all rattled the net just half a dozen times.

That is incredibly poor and somewhat of a pain for football loving supporters to be subjected to mediocre performances right after witnessing mind-blowing displays in Qatar. The final, as you would remember, produced six goals.

The 16 top flight sides need to take leaf from the World Cup.

With the kind of facilities and world class stadiums that Mzansi has, it is high time that the standard and quality of football improves, or else Bafana Bafana won’t stand a chance to get on the trip to the 2026 World Cup.