Strikers Bradley Grobler and Thamsanqa Gabuza may have gone off the boil in front of goal in recent days but SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo is backing his leading marksmen to bounce back.

Grobler and Gabuza have scored a goal each in their last five league matches as SuperSport lost ground on log-leaders Mamelodi Sundowns‚ who have played two games less in the league.

“It happens all over the world that attackers sometimes can’t find their scoring touch‚” said Tembo.

“It is our responsibility as coaches to make sure that we support them because halfway through the season they have scored close to 19 goals between them. If you look at a team like Liverpool‚ what would you say to Sadio Mane or Mohamed Salah?

“They have been scoring goals for the team for the past two seasons. That’s just the nature of the game because we know what they can do and ours is to continue supporting them. If you look at Gabuza‚ he struggled to score goals at Orlando Pirates but when he came to us he started to score. It was good for him and he knows that he can still score more goals. He must just continue working hard at training.

“If you look at last season‚ Gabadinho Mhango was the top goalscorer but how many goals has he scored this season? That’s the name of the game‚ we must support them because we know what they can do and I will continue playing them.”

Tembo said the many matches they have played within a short period have taken a toll.

“Look at our small and inexperienced squad‚ and the amount of matches that we have played‚ we have played a lot of back-to-back matches‚" he said.

"We have not really had time to rest some of our players. Gabuza went off with a muscle strain against [Orlando] Pirates‚ these matches are really taking their toll on the players.

“But we have some players like Guily Manziba and Teboho Mokoena coming back to the team after injuries to help us with freshness‚ and that’s all we need at the moment.

"We are playing again on Tuesday against AmaZulu who last played about ten or 14 days ago. It’s up to the players to stand up and show what they can do because these games are coming thick and fast‚ and we don’t have a choice but to keep up.”