Mokwena not a fan of rotation at Sundowns

Since Mamelodi Sundowns has secured the DStv Premiership, one would expect head coach Rulani Mokwena to give some of his players a chance to get a run out.

But the Sundowns mentor does not quite subscribe to a rotation system as he has observed that the level of performance drops when he makes wholesale changes in his team.

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“I’m not too sure if rotation is always the best thing. I look at how the level drops so drastically, and to elevate the performance levels, you lose a bit of mental intensity, being in camp, concentrating and hyping yourself up to be mentally prepared for the next game,” said Mokwena.  

“I was looking at Manchester City’s games, I looked at their game against Bayern Munich, I went into their game in the cup. There was not a lot of rotation. Erling Haaland was there and everyone else. Players need to play the game for momentum and rhythm. There is also the mental involvement to stay in the season.

“The team must know that they can trust each other in difficult moments and that they can suffer together. It is not easy, but it is the space that Real Madrid are in. They are trying to put pressure on Barcelona by wanting to win the Champions League,” he added.

Mokwena’s team, meanwhile, has had a lot of criticism leveled against them in recent games where they failed to register a single win on the domestic front before Sundowns managed to go back to winning ways when they beat Richards Bay 1-0 in the DStv Premiership on Tuesday afternoon at Loftus.

‘We chase winning every game’

“You can’t always play well, but we chase playing well all the time. We chase winning every game, it does not exist but we still chase it. We put ourselves in a space where we are going to get criticized either way,” said Mokwena.

He added: “Sometimes it is harsher than what people feel you deserve because the players are and the club are giving so much to try and win to be better every single match.

“But without criticism we can never get better. The more criticism the better because we use that energy to improve because we can’t rest on our laurels. We are so far from reaching our potential as a team.”