No, Broos, Gabuza is actually better now than five years ago

Kaitano Tembo was not pleased with Hugo Broos’ observation and comments about SuperSport United striker Thamsanqa, who was described by the Bafana Bafana coach as washed up. When announcing his Bafana squad to take on France and Guinea in friendlies later this month, Broos said Gabuza was a good striker five years ago.

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Statistically, Broos’ sentiments about the former Orlando Pirates striker appear to be uninformed. Five years ago, Gabuza was in his fourth of six seasons with the Buccaneers and he only managed to bang in two league goals in 18 appearances. He scored three goals for Pirates across all domestic cups in his six-year stay and he has produced the same for Matsatsantsa, with all three coming in his maiden season where he rattled the net in the MTN8.

The 34-year-old became a regular at Pirates in the 2015/16 season where he played 15 times in the league. In the subsequent season, he played 18, and 20 in the next 10 games in his final season. In 2015/16 and 16/17, Gabuza scored two in each of those seasons, then netted four times in the next before going 10 games without a single goal in his farewell season at the Bucs.

But at United, he has banged in more goals in two and half seasons compared to half a dozen of years at Pirates. He has league goals to his name in the colours of The Spartans while at Pirates he has half of that. But anyway, Steve Komphela once said stats are like bikinis, they don’t reveal everything.

“Gabuza brings in a different dimension in our team and at the moment we are a little bit thin in attack, he is the only outright striker that we have at the moment because Bradley Grobler is still injured until the end of the season,” Tembo said, in support of his leading goal scorer.

“So Gabuza leads our attack at the moment because the rest are youngsters. Gabuza has done well for us, if we are being fair. He works very hard and he allows his teammates to join him in attack because he can hold the ball sometimes and we are happy with his contribution,” he added.