Why Sundowns have a pleasant selection headache

Mamelodi Sundowns have close to 40 players in their squad and that on its own is enough to give any coach a headache when it comes to selecting the match-day squad.

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For Manqoba Mngqithi and his co-head coach, Rulani Mokwena, the criteria is straightforward: the players have to put up their A-game and be consistent in training and on the pitch to get the nod for game time.

“Our job as coaches is to put out a winning team on the pitch and players who play for Sundowns are here because they want to be here. We don’t want to keep players who don’t want to be here. As long as everybody feels that they want to be here, they will compete and fight for places,” said Mokwena.

Players like Mothobi Mvala and Bradley Ralani have only played once this season, while Kermit Erasmus, Pavol Safranko, Denis Onyango, just to name a few, are yet to get involved.

“The responsibility of each player is to make sure that they are as professional as possible with their conduct and with the ability to still be part of the set-up of the club,” said Mokwena.

“The good thing is that the profiling of the club also helps because we recruit not just in relation to the technical qualities that the players have, but also in regards to the personality and the human values that they have, so they can be integrated into the group. The team is far more important than the individual,” he added.

Mokwena says while his squad may be big, there is very little sulking at Chloorkop. He insisted that the level of professionalism is very high as they look to find their feet in DStv Premiership following a lukewarm start.

Sundowns have only picked up seven points out of a possible 12 from their opening four league games.

“At this moment we have a very good squad with very good players who now accept the responsibility to fight against each other for places,” said Mokwena.

“That responsibility is on them to be at their best and train well and put themselves in a position to be able to play.

“When you train well and play well, paired with a good attitude, you are in a good position to contribute to the club’s success.”