Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has insisted the club’s own supporters cannot expect shoe, shine and piano football and at the same time booing one of their own players when they’re trying to play out from the back.
Mokwena made 11 changes ahead of his side’s 2-1 win against fourth-placed Sekhukhune United that saw them go 13 points ahead of second-placed Stellenbosch FC.
Despite the changes, Masandawana came storming out of the starting blocks and were 2-0 inside seven minutes. However, Sekhukhune grew into the game, with defender Brian Onyango somewhat struggling.
But when fans were heard booing their own player, Mokwena turned around to plead with them to abstain from such behaviour.
“Yeah, but it’s the style of play. Sundowns supporters must believe in the style of play,” he told SuperSport.
“We’ve worked too hard to build this. And in fact, this is the culture of the team. I say to the players all the time, I say, ‘we don’t have – like all the other big teams – we don’t have the age, the history, in relation to how long of a club, we’re not the oldest club. So in terms of history and pedigree, the others have [that]. The one special thing we have is our style of play’.
“And this thing of shoe, shine and piano, “the Brazilian” doesn’t come with me, it does not come with me. I looked at a clip the other day of the club being run, I think by Zola Mahobe or the Tsichlas family. And I could see Mark Anderson receiving the ball from the back, there’s Jazzy Queen [Legodi], there’s Zane Moosa passing and passing and passing a little bit at the back, and Nanana, Mike Ntombela, the greats of this football club, this is the style of play they understand.
“And now if the Sundowns supporters start to panic on the players, what’s going to happen, these players must make mistakes. And football is a game of mistakes, but it’s a game of mistakes to be corrected, not game of mistakes to panic, and, and it will never happen.
“Everybody makes mistakes at his job. But it’s mistakes that help you to grow your character, you become a better person when you learn from them.
“And then the supporters have got to support them, and encourage them. And that’s the only thing I was pleading for.
“So sometimes I get the feeling that they put them under so much pressure. And yet these kids are doing so much for them. They die for them, they run for them, they sacrifice for them, they do everything for them. And these boys deserve even special recognition for the effort they are doing.”
