Pitso hopes new recruits adjust quickly at Sundowns
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane will need to be careful on how he handles the integration of his new recruits into his existing squad.
Mamelodi Sundowns new players Jeremy Brockie, Aubry Ngoma, Gaston Sirino and Siyabonga Zulu with Patrice Motsepe, Pitso Mosimane and Erik Hamren as the club’s new Technical Director during the Mamelodi Sundowns press conference at Chloorkop. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
Mosimane bolstered his star-studded Sundowns side with the addition of four new faces – Bolivian international Gaston Sirino, Siyabonga Zulu, and two long-time targets Aubrey Ngoma and Jeremy Brockie.
“Now is a transitional period and an adjustment phase for those new players and that is very difficult if you are a coach because you have a team playing at the moment. Now there are these new ones coming in, you need to bring them in slowly for them to adjust,” said Mosimane.
The former Bafana Bafana coach has said Sirino, Ngoma and Brockie are direct replacements of the dismantled trio of Leonardo Castro, Khama Billiat and Keagan Dolly, who were otherwise popularly known as the “CBD”. However, “Jingles” reckons it would be a risk for him to throw them into the deep-end.
“Sirino hasn’t played for a long time, he can play 45 minutes. Brockie is okay but Aubrey has been in and out of action in the last four months. Zulu is okay, he is ready.
“The new ones also need time to adjust and if that goes wrong you know where you can end up on the log, so I don’t want to be part of that.”
Mosimane added that it would be somewhat disingenuous of him to discard his tried and tested players who delivered the grandest club prize on the continent – the 2016 Caf Champions League.
“I am going to give respect to the guys who have done the job because they have helped the team to be where it is. Now that there are new faces coming in you suddenly dump you your important people. It doesn’t work like that.
“You need to be very careful because that transition can harm the team because now you see the new ones and you forget what those players have done.”
Absa Premiership table-topping Masandawana will be looking to extend their lead at the summit of the log this evening when they host Roger De Sa’s relegation threatened Platinum Stars at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
