Mngqithi – We don’t have room for excuses

Manqoba Mngqithi has given insight into what makes Mamelodi Sundowns such a dominant force in the league. 

The Brazilians will be attempting to claim a record-extending eighth championship title this season. At the conclusion of the current FIFA International break, Sundowns will play Mbabane Swallows in the first leg of the second preliminary round of the Caf Champions League. 

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They open their Betway premiership title defence against SuperSport United in a Tshwane derby on September 17, three days after the Swallows match. Mngqithi is open about the fact that their dominance on the domestic front is partly due to the quality of his star-studded roster. 

“The truth is depth and quality. That is number one and number two, I think it’s the club’s culture of working very hard. We’re given everything that we’re supposed to get and all the details about every single team that we play,” he said. 

“We hardly go into a match not knowing what to expect and that’s why we become so disappointed when we lose a match that we are supposed to win. The truth of the matter is that the work we put in behind the scenes always puts us in a good position to win matches.”

Sundowns fired blanks during back-to-back defeats against Stellenbosch FC in the MTN8 Cup competition. Mngqithi highlights the lack of firepower upfront as an area of concern that needs to be addressed ahead of the resumption of their tight schedule.

“If you look at the matches we’ve played even against Stellenbosch FC who were a hard nut to crack, if you look at the amount of chances that we created, maybe the bigger issue is why are we not converting our chances? That should be our main objective for training sessions because you are not scoring enough,” he added.

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“We don’t have room for excuses, we have everything that we want and when you have everything that you asked for as a coach, the only thing that you have to make sure of is to try and fight to win games to try and fight to create more scoring opportunities.”