Michaelson Ntokozo Gumede

By Ntokozo Gumede

Journalist


Sundowns still need to improve – Mokwena

Sundowns have battled in front of goal this season, netting just once from open play in four matches in all competitions thus far.


One would imagine that a star-studded team like Mamelodi Sundowns wouldn’t need to do much to maintain the high standards that they have set for themselves in the past few seasons.

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Sundowns co-head coach Rulani Mokwena, however, believes that the winners of the last four DStv Premiership titles, still need to dig deeper and improve their ways of playing.

The Sundowns co-head coach could not over-emphasise how his side still needed a lot of refinement before he and his fellow coaches, Manqoba Mngqithi and Steve Komphela, could be satisfied.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do and we have a lot of areas that we feel we need to improve, our attack is one of them. One of the key forces of offensive adaptation is time,” said Mokwena.

Sundowns have battled in front of goal this season, netting just once from open play in four matches in all competitions thus far.

Masandawana are coming off the back of a 1-1 draw in the MTN8 semifinal first-leg against Golden Arrows, where they were saved by Pavol Safranko’s goal towards the end of the match but Mokwena was pleased to see his players sticking to their way of playing.

“We have to be very systematic and make sure that we are working towards a very strong side because everyone wants to beat us, so it is important that we trust the process and we move in a way that allows us to have confidence in our ideas and in our game model. It is still a work in progress, but we see very good signs,” added Mokwena.

“At this moment it is just about keeping our feet on the ground, but there is still a lot of work to do. It is good because it does not create any room for complacency.”

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