Tau has come under major examination for his performances with Bafana Bafana of late, starting from the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and Hugo Broos pulled him out of the FIFA Series games against Andorra and Algeria to protect him.

He's since returned, along with Foster, who has been attacked by fans and certain sections of the media in equal measure for not honouring his call-up for AFCON whilst he was publicly struggling with mental health issues, which saw him miss over a month of action in the Premier League with Burnley.

"Who has the medals that Percy has? So what is this talk of criticising him? How do you criticise someone that nobody [in South Africa] can match him? How do we criticise that? Someone must say I've been to the FIFA Club World Cup three times, like Percy," Mosimane told iDiski Times.

Mosimane also referred to the commotion around his decision to lure Tau to Egypt whilst he was struggling to break into the starting line-up of Brighton and Hove Albion and questioned why there's condemnation around a player who's arguably now one of the most decorated in South African football history.

"Who [can compete with Percy for accolades]? I have a bronze medal? Show us! Being the third-best team in the world, show us that, win the Champions League, and go to three Champions League finals in a row," he stated.

"I mean how do you criticise our best player? Everyone is being criticised, Lyle Foster, they criticise him, Pienaar was my captain [in Bafana] they criticised him, Benni was criticised.

"So anyway, there's criticism everywhere so you have to do something [about it to silence the noise]. If you don't do anything, they will still criticise you for doing nothing."

Foster and Tau are in the Bafana squad that drew 1-1 with Nigeria in Uyo and are set to face Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein on Tuesday afternoon in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Pitso Mosimane defends Bafana big guns Percy Tau and Lyle Foster amid criticism