It’s Shocking what Amakhosi Is Missing 

SuperSport United and Bafana Bafana midfielder Teboho Mokoena once more underlined his goal-scoring capabilities with a crucial header against Zimbabwe in Thursday evening’s World Cup qualifier at the FNB Stadium.

Mokoena has been linked with Chiefs for a couple of seasons now and the irony of him getting on the end of Amakhosi winger Keagan Dolly’s cross to score, may not be lost on some of the club’s supporters.

It has been Dolly’s recent combination with Khama Billiat which has helped propel Chiefs’ season from a rather disappointing campaign into one with more promise.

The issue though is the sustainability of the Dolly-Billiat combination – to expect them to shoulder the burden of the goal scoring and goal creating all season long, may be asking too much.

Even more so if one of them breaks down with injury.

Of course, Leonardo Castro and Samir Nurkovic are still to come back from injury, as is Lebogang Manyama, and they may add to the Amakhosi attack.

However, those three are all around 30-years old and may not be at the top of their games that much longer.

None of them have been in great form for some time.

And what Chiefs – a club renowned for producing legendary midfielders like Doc Khumalo and Shoes Moshoeu, have been lacking for some time is a free-scoring central midfielder.

An all-action playmaker, someone in the mould of ex-Mamelodi Sundowns skipper, Hlompho Kekana. The more one sees Mokoena play for Bafana, the more obvious it seems that he’s a natural replacement for Kekana in the national team.

He’s a player who likes to take the game by the scruff of the neck and who can settle a tight contest with a killer long-range shot. Like Kekana, it’s uncanny how accurate, yet powerful, the Matsatsantsa man can be from distance.

The goal against Zimbabwe was of course a header, and a very well-taken one at that. It showed Mokowena’s willingness to run beyond the midfield and to get into the box.

It’s something which we don’t see too often from the current crop of central midfielders at Chiefs – Cole Alexander, Phathutshedzo Nange, Kearyn Baccus and Anthony Agay.

Mokoena’s goal-scoring and assisting prowess from a slightly deeper-lying central midfield could be just what Amakhosi need to help them go from top-eight challengers and get closer to knocking the mighty Sundowns off their perch.

At just 24-years-old he could be the perfect signing.