Clean sheets are as important as goals at Sundowns

Given the rate that Mamelodi Sundowns have been scoring goals of late, one may start to lean towards the idea that the players are told to score as many as possible by the technical team.

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Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi says that’s not the case, adding that the players are given a very reasonable target for every game.

“When it comes to goals, our targets are not high. We usually look to score just two goals. If we score two goals in a game, we are happy and if we can keep four clean-sheets in five matches we will be happy with that,” said Mngqithi.  

“When we score a lot of goals, we don’t want to get carried away because that has got a potential of getting you carried away. We appreciate the fact that the team is scoring but our focus is to always try and maximize the number of clean sheets and the possibility of scoring more than one goal because if we score more than one goal we stand a chance of winning that match,” he added.

Someone who might add a few goals in Masandawana’s tally this season in Erwin Saavedra, who is expected to return to action after missing a few games due to injury.

However, one player who Downs supporters might have to wait until next season to see is Rivaldo Coetzee. Mngqithi explains the situation.

“I am not too sure if we will be able to see Rivaldo again this season, if it happens that he comes back we will all appreciate it because we don’t want to rush. I asked the doctors recently about Coetzee but the answers that I got were sufficient to make me say let’s do the right thing and let’s not hope to have him soon and if it does happen, we will appreciate it. Savedraa is a close call but we will see him again. We don’t have to rush him and we hope that he will be in a better space to help us,” said Mngqithi.