Mokwena: ‘Zungu not entitled to walk into Sundowns team’

When Bongani Zungu re-joined Mamelodi Sundowns, the general expectation was that he would fit into Masandawana’s midfield like a hand in a glove but it has taken the 30-year-old over 20 games before he made his first start.

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Zungu started in the thrilling 3-2 Nedbank nCup win over Richards Bay – a result that sees Sundowns advance to the last 16.

His coach, Rulani Mokwena says while the expectation was sky high from Zungu, given that he is coming from France and Scotland where he represented Vitoria Guimaraes, Amiens and Rangers, no one is entitled to walk into his team.

Good Player

“Zungu is a good player but he comes into a very good squad and he has to work hard,” said Mokwena.

“I was listening to a podcast where Jurgen Klopp was talking about the difference between entitlement and empowerment. He said he does not coach his players to have a sense of entitlement but he coaches them to give them some empowerment. Everything that he tries to teach them is not just based on football but also on life.

“Even when he is not around them, the words need to resonate in them. That is the same for our players, they have a lot of good qualities and everyone is good enough to play, that is why all of them are at Sundowns. But we have to empower them with the right life principles, where they don’t feel the sense of entitlement,” Mokwena added.

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Meanwhile, another part of Mokwena’s self-inflicted mandate at Sundowns is to instill a camaraderie among his players, and he explains why he does not panic when things are not going their way.

“The work of the players shows. Even though in certain moments we played without making changes earlier (in the season) … I did that because I had the feeling that the team must learn to suffer together.

“That builds the trust that in difficult moments they can rely on each other. In the last couple of games we had to dig really deep but against Richards Bay we were very good on the ball, especially with the player rotation.”