Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena says it doesn’t matter what rival coaches say as the game belongs to the players.
In the build-up to the Chippa United fixture, head coach Morgan Mammila stated Sundowns are one of the easiest teams to prepare for and face due to their distinct playing style.
In a case of you know what you will get. It probed several questions around the football fraternity, while the likes of Sekhukhune United head coach Brandon Truter, in the wake of Sundowns’ dominance, stated that coaches in the league can match up to Sundowns – but the difference in their spending power and quality of footballers at their disposal.
Mokwena, however, was not keen to entertain the side talk, stating it would never matter – as the game is won and lost on the pitch by the players – not the coaches.
“The game belongs to the players, that’s my response, none of the coaches, nor myself have scored a single goal as professional footballers,” he said after the game.
“We’ve not created… it’s not important whether we can match each other or not because we’ll never see that contest – the game belongs to the players.”
With Masandawana seemingly cruising to a sixth consecutive league title, as they now hold a 13 points gap over second-placed SuperSport United, Mokwena denied they are now looking beyond the league with the CAF Champions League group stage on the horizon.
“We go game by game, we know we’re not at the level that we want to be at yet – a lot of people are saying we’re not at the level everyone thinks we should be so we have no excuses or reasons to be in a sense of comfort, no reason at all,” he said.
“We know we will improve and we’ll continue to work hard to get better and better.”
Sundowns face SuperSport United next in the Tshwane Derby at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium on Monday evening.
