Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has praised new signing Junior Mendieta, saying he adds a lot of quality and aggressiveness to the squad.
The Argentinian midfielder joined Downs in the current window transfer after spending three seasons in the Cape Winelands with Stellenbosch FC.
Mokwena highlighted that the 30-year-old ticks all boxes as a Sundowns player, saying his technical and tactical ability paired with his aggression are the perfect fit for the club.
“Mendieta provides us with dynamism, especially in the number 10 position,” Mokwena told the club’s media team.
“He is a 10 that can project himself into a number 9 and that gives us good versatility with regards to how we want to play the schemes, the organisation of forms that we can adopt and he’s got a lot of very good qualities for sure that suit the way we want to play.
“He’s got a very good capacity from a motor quality type of perspective and then also he is very aggressive in his football actions, in particular his counter pressing and his pressing actions were very important for Stellenbosch the last couple of seasons, particularly his influence in trying to win the ball in areas closer to the box.”
Mokwena also revealed that Mendieta’s mentality has impressed him, while he can help the club with regards of set-pieces on both ends of the pitch.
“The one thing that lot of people don’t know about about Mendieta is that on set-pieces he is very strong both in technical delivery and his contribution in set-pieces but also on defensive set-pieces. He’s got a very good elevation, he was extremely important for Stellenbosch in how they defended their set-plays,” he added.
“He brings a lot of qualities to our team. He’s got also the mentality, he is extremely humble, he works very hard. We saw it even on Mandela day, where he painted an entire wall all by himself.
“He ticks a lot of boxes from a tactical perspective but also from a personality perspective, the type of players that we like – passionate and aggressive, extremely competitive.
“Of course the fact that he comes from a football nation Argentina where they [are] extremely obsessed by the game. You could see that passion and aggression.
“We are very happy to have him. He gives us a lot of options.”
