Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena hailed his team’s performance after their 3-0 win over Stellenbosch, and credited co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi for the idea of bringing on man-of-the-match Thapelo Morena as an early sub.
Morena made two assists after coming on for the injured Gaston Sirino in Tuesday’s DStv Premiership win.
Speaking to SuperSport after the match, Mokwena said it was Mngqithi who suggested the Morena substitute.
“No congratulations first to Bafana BaStyle, congratulations to Sundowns, congratulation to the entire team, but this one has to go to coach Manqoba, he actually called it yesterday, the Thapelo sub, and when we thought about bringing on other players, he said ‘coach, remember we had that plan from yesterday.’ So it was a Manqoba move,” Mokwena told SuperSport.
Mokwena was pleased with his teams’ performance, saying while they’re far from the finished product, he was impressed by their application.
“We liked what this team looked like today, much better, good intensity, good aggression and we played with a lot of energy from the start,” Mokwena added.
“But we know we are still, we are very far off from what we can do, very, very far off and we can still do more.
When asked about debutant Marcelo Allende, who made an impressive start, scoring a goal after coming on as a second half substitute, Mokwena chose to praise all his players, but said they know that they’ve signed a very good player
“Ja, but, you can talk about how good was Rushine, how good was Brian Onyango today, how good was Andile Jali today,” Mokwena responded.
“Neo again, also very good tactically fit. Peter Shalulile worked his socks off for the team, like always.
“You can talk about the complete team performance, but it’s good to see Marcelo. Let’s be patient with him. He still has a lot to do to adapt to the club, but we know what he can do.
“The club has worked very, very hard to bring him on board and congratulations management for a very good recruitment.”
