Bafana Bafana coach Broos: South African assistant will know the players better than me

In his first interview since arriving in South Africa, newly-appointed Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has elaborated on how he plans to get the best out of the team.

Broos' previous experience in Africa came with Cameroon, with whom he won the 2017 Afcon.

Having played against Bafana Bafana in the qualifiers, he's not a complete stranger to football in this country but did admit that he does not know very much about South African players.

This he believes is not necessarily a bad thing as he will have no preconceived notions and there will be a blank slate as far as team selection is concerned.

"I have to be honest, that for the moment, I need some more information to know this team better than I know it for the moment," Broos told SABC Sport.

"Everything is about results. And tomorrow if there are no results, you can tell what you want, it's finished.

"I can make my choices, I don't have to look to anybody. When everybody knows you and you know the players already. Sometimes the choice is difficult to make, I'm clean for the moment. That can be a favour for me."

Broos spoke also about injecting more energy into the team, although it's not only on the physical aspects that he will be focussing on.

"Football on that level is very tough. When you see in Europe the Champions League games it's very tough," he said. "And all over the world when you are playing at that level, you have to be physically okay, mentally okay, tactically okay, otherwise you can't have results, so there's huge work to do.

"Plan is first to have a team for the next games. How we are going to do that. I will need my South African assistant because he knows the team better and we will take some decisions then. This is very important to do."

Key to success, Broos believes, will be a strong team ethic. He also favours attacking football.

"My philosophy is I like offensive football. For me very important is the team, I like to see the team on the pitch, not three or four individuals, a team," he said.

"And I achieved that with Cameroon. There were better teams than us, but we won Afcon. Because we had a team, and not only 11 players but 23 players as a team. And that made us win the Afcon in 2017.

"The captain of the team of Cameroon said after winning the final, 'you came here on your first day, you told us how you are going to work. And you followed two years the same thing, you never changed. Everyone knows what the coach wants today and also tomorrow and also one week later and also a month later."

Safa is yet to announce Broos' technical team.