Sundowns co-coach looks for improvement after scooping PSL award

After winning the DStv Premiership Coach of the Month for October and November, Manqoba Mngqithi and his co-coach Rulani Mokwena have reviewed Mamelodi Sundowns last five games where they went undefeated but dropped six points in draws against Cape Town City, SuperSport United and Stellenbosch FC.

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Mngqithi says the main objective is to improve their scoring rate, even though they come from a 3-2 win over Royal AM on Wednesday evening where they extended their lead at the summit to 11 points.  

“It is never nice to draw or lose a match at Sundowns but the truth of the matter is that at a certain point in the league you must expect that you can concede a goal and this thing of not conceding a goal was beginning to pile a lot of pressure because we are an attacking team and that means we must always say we will score more than the opponent.

“The players know that more than worrying about conceding goals, we have a bigger responsibility of scoring goals and that is why we will always complain when we play a match and we score one goal because we always believe we deserve to score two or more goals a match. Truth be told, we have done the best we could with what we have but drawing two matches in one cycle of five games is what hurts us the most.

“We can take drawing one match but you would not take drawing two or losing because it becomes more difficult for us. The group is fully aware and we are working very hard to improve and the good thing from all the draws we had is that we believe we could have easily converted those draws into wins,” said the Sundowns mentor.

Nonetheless, Mngqithi was pleased with being honoured with the top-coach gong alongside Mokwena, saying he receives the award with utmost humility and hinted at last season’s controversial awarding of the Coach of the Season to Benni McCarthy’s efforts at AmaZulu.

“We must appreciate these accolades when they come and take them with humility and a lot of respect because the fact of the matter is that there are too many good teams in the league and there are many good coaches. For us to get it, we must appreciate and have gratitude that finally, everybody believes that we deserve to get them.”