How Sundowns are managing ‘explosive’ Ribeiro

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has explained how he keeps star midfielder Lucas Ribeiro in peak condition in what is turning out to be a gruelling schedule. At the rate Lucas Ribeiro is going, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him walking away with the PSL Footballer of the Season award at the end of the campaign.

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Ribeiro produced another individual moment of brilliance in the 1-0 win over Kaizer Chiefs in a Betway Premiership match at Lucas Moripe Stadium last Saturday. His solitary strike was enough to seal all three points against Amakhosi.

Sundowns’ Ribeiro ‘also needs freshness’

Overall, the 26-year-old has scored 12 league goals from 18 matches. In the midst of a tight fixture schedule, Cardoso substituted Ribeiro six times in the last eight matches in a deliberate effort to manage the load in the second half of the season.

“Lucas is no doubt a quality player, but he’s a player who also needs freshness. He’s a player that’s very explosive, and in order to be explosive, he needs to be fresh. He’s trying to cope with the effort that he has been putting in,” Cardoso explained.

“We’re also trying to let him recover as much as possible between matches, but it has been very tough for him. Explosive players are the ones that suffer most from fatigue … he lives from these explosive actions.

“I think he’s doing fewer of these explosive actions because he is tired, but the ones he does, he does with quality, and thanks to a fantastic individual technical execution, he scored a wonderful goal.”

Having coached across Europe in countries such as Portugal, Spain, Ukraine, France, and Greece, Cardoso is more than qualified to make a judgment on whether Ribeiro has what it takes to make it abroad.

‘A coach always wants the best for his players’

“I hope he stays for more years at the club, but I also hope one day, he can express himself at a higher level,” Cardoso answered when asked if Ribeiro has the quality to make the grade in Europe.

“A coach always wants the best for his players. I always tell them that I love to work with them, but in the end, if they can go for better opportunities, they must go, please. 

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“It will make me a better coach if I promote the players. In the past, it has happened like that, and I hope that in the future it will happen with Sundowns players – if they want to go, because maybe they want to stay.”