Stuart Baxter impressed with Percy Tau’s attitude

by Graeme Jackson

Wednesday Jun 19, 2019. 13:14

South Africa national team coach Stuart Baxter has explained that he was impressed by Percy Tau’s selfless attitude in their recent goalless draw with Ghana.

Bafana Bafana and the Black Stars played to a 0-0 stalemate in their warm-up meeting in Dubai ahead of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, which gets underway this coming weekend.

Tau was forced to play a more defensive role against Ghana, but Baxter praised the forward for his hard work and ability to adapt.

“I’m always impressed with Percy because his attitude is spot on,” explained Baxter, as quoted by Kick-Off.

“We asked him to play a slightly different role [against Ghana] and our midfield players and defenders did not defend the way we wanted them to, which meant Percy got dragged back.

“So in the second half we defended better further up the field and therefore people like Themba Zwane and [Lebohang] Maboe were dangerous further up the field. That’s what we wanted from him.”

South Africa arrived in Egypt on Tuesday and are set to play their final warm-up match against Angola later today.

Bafana Bafana will open their Group D campaign at the 2019 AFCON with a clash against Ivory Coast in Cairo on Monday 24 June.