McCarthy’s New Year’s wish: A striker who can score 15 goals a season

In the current DStv Premiership season, AmaZulu lie sixth after 20 games, and towards the end of last year they claimed a memorable win over log-leaders Sundowns. In the Champions League, McCarthy’s charges have made the cut for the group stage, starting in February.

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However, they most recently suffered a loss to Orlando Pirates, and when sharing some of his thoughts when reflecting on 2021, McCarthy has made his desires clear.

“It’s clear that we need a playmaker, we need someone to assist in the creativity because yes, we are creating but we’re not creating enough. I also think Bonginkosi Ntuli needs back-up, he needs help. We need someone who is goal-hungry, who is aggressive when a goal-scoring opportunity presents itself and has the hunger and desire to get there, whether it’s a beautiful goal or a tap-in.

“I need a hungry player who’s hungry to score 15, 12 goals a season. I know it sounds impossible, but they are out there. I also think that in defence, especially with losing a player like [Sibusiso] Mabiliso, who was such an unbelievable outlet going up and down the wing.

“We haven’t replaced Sbusiso Mabiliso with the same quality he brought to the team and you can see, players like Augustine Mulenga’s performance is not the same because over his shoulder he had a player like Mabiliso who was flying up that flank and giving him options,” McCarthy said.

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McCarthy desperate for “new faces”

“You can see, 12 draws is not normal for any team. When you play the way that we play, we play expansive football where you want to dominate the opposition, and we manage to do so, but the final third is where we disappoint ourselves.

“From those 12 draws, I think three or four of them were in cases where we maybe didn’t deserve to win, but it’s eight too many draws for my liking and for what we want to achieve as a football club.

“We have thrown away too many points this season, and I think we are going to rue our misses come the end of the season.

“The mindset that we have is to succeed and do well, and we’ve just thrown away too many points, so hopefully, the club can come to the party and play their part in assisting in bringing in some quality players that the team needs.

“We’ve done exceptionally well last season and this season, but you need to keep everyone on their toes, you need to keep everyone honest, and at the moment, there’s a level of complacency, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do.

“The players can only give you as much as they can because we’ve reached the level where we are, and we’re going to need assistance in taking us to the next level. When I say assistance, that means a couple of new faces and good quality players.”

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