No egos at Sundowns – Mngqithi

For a star-studded team like Mamelodi Sundowns, one can always expect cases of a divided dressing room and egos spiraling out of control, but that seems to not be the case given the amount of success that the club has enjoyed in recent years. In fact, Downs coach Manqoba Mngqithi says the formula to keep his dressing room quiet is simple.

He leans towards the mentality of speak ‘n verstaan, where he and his co-head coach, Rhulani Mokwena together with goalkeeper coach Wendell Robison and senior coach Steve Komphela always move in the same motion, forcing the players to pull towards the same direction.

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“If we are all talking the same language and driving towards the same direction, it is possible to achieve our targets but if you want to be a stand alone coach and want to have influence on 30-35 players, it does not work,” said Mngqithi.

“But if we as leaders do our part very well and we stick with each other and make sure that we are not unfair to these boys because they are all like our children and we don’t want to be petty with them and create unnecessary fights with them because that kills the whole environment. They all have confidence to confide in us because they know that they have leaders who are fathers to them,” he added.

A couple of teams have suffered from player-power, such as Eric Tinkler at SuperSport United when he was eventually pushed out by the phenomenon. At Downs this does not exist, at least it appears. Mngqithi also has a winning formula, which is what keeps his team grounded.

“The expectation is that it should be one of the most difficult things to manage and the moment you start to have problems of egos in the change room is because you would have failed to be a proactive leader because it is your responsibility to see that everybody understands how the journey is going to be and you share this journey with everyone,” said Mngqithi.

“You need to make players understand that there are times where they are going to find themselves not playing. Not because they have done anything wrong but because another player got an opportunity because one was suspended or got injured. If you are a selfish player, it means when you come back we must take out the other player and play you,” he added.