Wounded Mamelodi Sundowns wary of ‘consistent’ Golden Arrows

Log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns will be looking to put Sunday’s defeat to Kaizer Chiefs behind them when they meet third-placed Golden Arrows this evening.

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The sides are set to meet in a top-of-the-table DStv Premiership clash at Loftus Versfeld Stadium at 5pm.

Speaking ahead of today’s clash, Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena says the Brazilians will have to guard against Abafana Bes’thende’s transitional display if they are to win this encounter.

“[They are a] good team, they have shown good consistency throughout the season, they are a good team with a clear playing philosophy with a clear structure in all schemes, in possession you know exactly how the behaviour is and structurally how they set themselves up from the build-up,” Mokwena told the club’s website on Wednesday.

“The very interesting thing is that from the last twelve goals that they have scored, ninety percent of them have come in between the phase of regaining possession and attacking, they average about 8 seconds to get into your final third, in transition they can hurt you.

“We know the strength of this team and we know the quality of the team that we are facing and we know the work that we have to do to be able to control Golden Arrows in relation to their strengths and then infuse our playing philosophy on to the match so that we can dominate not just the match but also the pitch,” added Mokwena.

Mokwena also provided a brief injury update ahead of the Arrows clash.

“We almost have a clean bill of health. Kennedy [Mweene] is ruled out as he is still struggling, but then we have slight knocks from the previous match so we just have to assess that, Gaston [Sirino] had a slight knock and Brian [Onyango] had a few muscle complications. Peter Shalulile, we will have to see, if not this match then hopefully for Sunday’s encounter,” concluded Mokwena.