Sundowns’ commitment to playing principles is their key to success

Mamelodi Sundowns coaches have always insisted that their training methods are designed to help their players improve and unlock their full potential.

Since joining the Brazilians, Ronwen Williams has found himself playing high up, more like an additional central defender, who will usually instigate the move forward, to add numbers in Sundowns’ high-pressing tactics.

Williams says the rule at Sundowns is to never deviate from the coach’s playing principles, even when things are not working out on the pitch. Of late, Downs have not been the scoring machine that everybody knows them to be, but they still do get the job done.

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Doing better every day

“It is the profile of the team and we continue to be like that,” said Williams.

“It has always been like this and even in the local league when we suffer, we stick to our way of playing because we don’t know any other way.

“If you come and watch 11 versus 11 at training, you “would see how difficult it is. We push each other to be better and we do corrections each and every day.

Having a coach like Rulani Mokwena, who insists that he is the “hardest working coach” in the whole of the Premier Soccer League, Sundowns players are bound to follow in their mentor’s footsteps, and Williams says this is evident in their day-to-day lives at Chloorkop.

“The coach does not give us time to rest, there is always something to analyze and try to do things better, which is why we are here where we are as a team.

“I have made so many mistakes but through doing corrections, we have tried to minimise them but it is impossible to not make mistakes in a game of football.

“I have made many mistakes outside my box and that’s where my defenders help me. Even after making mistakes, we do it again because that is what we live for. We have suffered a lot in the last few weeks but that is how we are going to grow,” the Bafana Bafana goalkeeper added.

Meanwhile, the defending DStv Premiership champions are out of the country to continue their quest for Caf Champions League success. Sundowns will play Cameroon side Cotonsport on Friday before travelling to Egypt where they will meet Al-Ahly.