Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena says it’s important big teams have 11 players in possession in reference to Ronwen William’s sweeper keeper role this season.
The Bafana Bafana captain has been a revelation since making his switch from rivals SuperSport United, keeping 15 clean sheets in 21 games.
However, what’s caught the eye is his aggressive and attacking goalkeeping style, where he serves as an extra player in their possession-based tactical system and often starts their fluent attacking moves.
Mokwena played down his immediate impact and refused to go too much into detail about what they’ve implemented at the club but lauded the hierarchy for luring some of the finest talent in the country to Chloorkop.
“Congratulations to everybody involved in the Sundowns that we see, that includes the recruitment department, that includes everybody that works in the scouting department and trying to invest, that included the generosity of the Motsepe family that goes into that space and how they invest in football,” Mokwena said when asked about William’s addition.
“And then for sure the individual qualities come to the front and we try to create schemes, structures or mechanical things to work on that suits the needs and the quality of the players and the team – so maybe for me, it’s more Happy Birthday to Ronza and it’s a clean sheet.
“A part from that, the talk [about his role] is good, but the talk could be different if one or two of the situations [were punished] because it’s very risky to play with the goalkeeper and there were one or two situations where it’s easy to say but what are they doing?
“So it works out for us, it’s important for us because big teams must have 11 players in possession on the pitch and we try to do that with Ronwen as the starting point of our build-up schemes for sure.”
