TTM can expect a full strength Mamelodi Sundowns team when they meet in Sunday’s Nedbank Cup semi-finals, according to Sundowns’ Co-Head Coach Manqoba Mngqithi.
Sundowns beat Orlando Pirates 4-1 in Thursday’s last eight game, and Mngqithi says the defending champions will select the best team possible for Sunday’s match.
While Sundowns will be defending the trophy, Mngqithi says that isn’t at the forefront of their thoughts, as he and his technical team just want to win every game, no matter the tournament
“We don’t want to give any match away, we never really looking at the trophy, looking at anything,” Mngqithi said ahead of Sunday’s semi-final.
“I wish you can see the whole technical team, when we playing a friendly, and we’re not playing well, because I’m fortunate to be working with the coaches that also have the mentality that I have, because we all don’t like to lose matches.”
“And be it a cup match, Nedbank Cup or what, we just don’t want to lose. And we’ll always give our best shot in ever game.”
“And I do not want to create an impression as if there is something that we say differently to the players on a particular match. We always want to win a match. That is why we always put specific tactical agreements as to what we think our opponents are strong at, What are our opportunities there? What we think are the threats, and what is that we need to do to try and exploit some of the challenges that the team might have.”
“And we put that for every match because it’s very important for us to know, every player within the team that we’re going to play against and we work very hard in that space and really want to give credit to all the guys.”
Mngqithi says he doesn’t expect to make too many changes to his team for Sunday’s game, and TTM can expect a full strength team.
“I do not think we will rest any player for this coming matches, the reason why we played the team that we played against Belouizdad, was because at the back of our minds, we were already looking at these three, four matches that are coming in, which was Chippa, pirates, potentially Tshakhuma, or Maritzburg if we did not go through. And also after that, a possibility of of going to AmaZulu.”
“So that’s why we we took a risk of not playing most of our key players, because we thought we could still get something from that match without most of the players that have been playing regulary. So we believe the group that we have, it is very important for them to really give their best shots in the next five matches, because the next five matches can be very critical, maybe they can even decide our season, so we will not be hoping to rest anyone.”
“I don’t think we can think like that. Now. All these matches are very important to us.”
