With Stuart Baxter undecided about his Bafana Bafana future, South Africa vice-captain Dean Furman has revealed why he thinks the former Kaizer Chiefs mentor should remain at the helm of the national team.
Bafana suffered a heart-breaking exit from the tournament when they succumbed to a 2-1 defeat to Nigeria in the quarter-finals last Wednesday, courtesy of William Troost-Ekong's last-gasp winner at the Cairo International Stadium.
Following their Afcon exit, speculation has been running rife regarding Baxter's future with the national team, with the Englishman himself revealing he is undecided as to whether or not he will continue in his role as Bafana coach.
Furman weighed in with his opinion on the former SuperSport United boss, claiming that he speaks for most of the players when saying he thinks the 65-year-old should continue as the national team coach.
"I have worked with the coach a long time and I know how meticulous his planning is," Furman said upon Bafana's arrival at OR Tambo on the weekend.
"This man is not given enough credit. I'm speaking on behalf of the players when I say that we hope he remains as the head coach of Bafana.
"He doesn't take enough credit for how we set up, and how we worked on the training ground to cause teams problems, not just when we had the ball but also when we didn't.
"The way I see it, we have been with the coach two years, and we were disappointed not to go to the (2018) World Cup, but we qualified for the Afcon by beating Nigeria away in another performance in which we were tactically superior, when we had only worked with the coach a week or two.
"Then we went to Tunisia to play Libya, and again we worked for a week, and yes, the players performed, but the way we set up to nullify their threat was overlooked."
Baxter was named as Shakes Mashaba's successor in May 2017, signing a five-year deal with South African Football Association in his second stint as coach of the national team.