Mngqithi’s weekend itinerary for Sundowns 

This time around they were booted out by Bloemfontein Celtic, leaving Downs with no action this weekend. Co-head coach Manqoba Mngqithi says he and his technical team will use this time to integrate the hundreds of players who joined the side in recent weeks.

“We still have issues of adaptation for some of the players and trying to integrate some of them into the team and this will give us a little bit of time to work without the pressure of preparing for the game but to work on the aspects of the game which we think are important and play the way we want,” said Mngqithi.

“Inasmuch as one will be focusing on the training of the team and trying to integrate the new players with the old players , within that space we are trying to have one or two friendies to try and see how far we can go with the team,” he added.

The Masandawana mentor takes us into some aspects which he would like to work on as he and Rhulani Mokwena look to add a tune of their own in Downs’ ‘shoe-shine and piano’ style of play.

“We are encouraging some of the things that they are doing because there are some changes that we are trying to bring to the team structurally and from a build-up perspective in the midfield and our creative side in our number 10 position where players like Themba Zwane, Gaston Sirino and Sphelele Mkhulise find themselves a lot.

“Our wing play is not as crisp as we would have loved. We are trying to work very hard on that aspect and there are a lot of positives to what we want but unfortunately in the process we want to keep getting maximum points and build whilst you are getting maximum points. The unfortunate part is that if you don’t get the maximum points you start feeling negative and the vibe is not the same but we are confident that we will be able to come up with something after the process.”

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