Manqoba Mngqithi: Iqraam Rayners must earn his Mamelodi Sundowns spot

The Brazilians were eliminated from the MTN8 by Stellenbosch FC after losing both legs 1-0 in the semi-finals, while goal ace Rayners was cup tied.

Now that he is available, Mngqithi has made it clear the forward will have to earn his spot in the starting line-up. 

"It's a little bit of a tough one, I must be honest, because you also don't want to induce stress and pressure on him. It's very important that we manage that arrival and integration very well," said Mngqithi.

"It can also destabilise our change room because, sometimes as coaches, we tend to look down on what we had before other players arrived, and that cane cause a lot of problems in the change room.

"Because I do believe when you're playing a player like Iqraam, it's because you want him to add on what we have, but it's not that we want to minus certain individuals in the team.

"And it becomes very bad when, in the beginning of the season, you have not scored goals, and now you want to prioritise using particular players at the expense of other players.

"Because you don't want to kill anyone – you want everybody to remain with a belief that they still have a chance here. If you just hand it over to Iqraam without him working hard for it, it may kill the other players that start to realise maybe their time at the club is up."

Ahead of their CAF Champions League group stage play-offs against Mbabane Swallows on Saturday night, the coach confirmed the Bafana Bafana forward could be in contention. 

"I must say he has done very well. He has only played in one friendly and he scored a lot, so we are looking forward to seeing more because the reason we brought him here is because we believe he's got goals, which is what we've been lacking," added Mngqithi.

"We are very excited that Iqraam probably did not get as many game minutes during the FIFA break, which might give us a little bit of an edge to try and use him for this match."

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