Rulani Mokwena will land in Algeria on Thursday to begin his tenure as head coach of Mouloudia Club d’Alger, popularly known as MC Alger.
Mokwena has agreed to a two-year deal with the People’s Club, who are the reigning Algerian champions.
One of the first people to wish Mokwena well in his new job is French manager Hubert Velud, who, in fact, missed out on the job.
“Mokwena is a young and ambitious coach, part of a new generation of coaches on the African continent,” said Velud, as quoted by Algerian publication Footalgeriedz.
“He loves possession football, relies on building play from the back, and prefers a modern attacking approach.
“His style did not produce positive results in Morocco, but conditions might be better with Mouloudia Algiers.”
Mokwena admitted this week that he found the going tough with his style of play at Moroccan club Wydad Casablanca, and based on his comments, he’s picked up some valuable lessons about football in North Africa.
“The Moroccan level is very demanding from a physicality perspective, and I think technically, the players are also at a very, very good level, particularly in dominating duels offensively and defensively and playing under pressure,” said Mokwena.
“I think a lot of the situations that I had in my game model were to build a little bit lower using a goalkeeper for an example, but in Morocco you only find that you’d probably have five, six, or seven passes between the center backs and even engage the six. So you’ve wasted so much time, people have recovered, and even the intensity and the energy, and then (the opponent) is able to minimize your possibilities to attack, and then you’ve got to find different ways.”
Mokwena added, “So, things like that you’d not think about in South Africa, but I think in Morocco I was able to think diversely and find solutions that I was never able to even think about because in South Africa you do get teams that press you high, you do get teams that give you possibilities of space behind, and if not, then spaces in between the lines. But when that happens, it’s easier to play a little bit more differently, but how do you then maintain a possessional relational structure, even against teams that are very, very compact and sit maybe in zone two? It was a great challenge from a tactical perspective (in Morocco).”
MC Alger are based in the capital, Algiers.
The club was founded in 1921, and its colours are red, green, and white. Their home stadium, Ali La Pointe Stadium, has a capacity of 40,000 spectators.
