Mamelodi Sundowns co-head coach Manqoba Mngqithi has commented on Erwin Saavedra’s short debut in the CAF Champions League and explained why he didn’t play longer.
The Bolivia international, who only arrived in South Africa on Tuesday made his debut for the club of the bench in their 1-0 win over Al Hilal Omdurman on Friday.
Even though he only featured for three minutes after replacing Pavol Safranko in injury time, Mngqithi insisted that he’s settled very well and will soon find a place in the Masandawana starting XI.
“The reason why we even had him in the team was to fast-track his integration in the team,” Mngqithi answered when asked by iDiski Times about the new signing.
“So that he starts to get a feel of the group and participates with the group. Obviously he’s very fit because he has been playing in South America and he’s done very well for his team.
“He was always in the team and performed a lot of minutes, so in terms of his physical fitness we had no doubt.
“We had a little bit of a doubt in terms of his traveling, because his traveling took about two days because there was a problem with flight to flight and it’s always a little bit of a challenge with transit periods. That’s why we were a little bit worried and didn’t give him more minutes.
“But we do believe in the very near future he’ll be able to be in the starting XI and to be able to help the team but we do not want to rush him.
“We’ll have to give him a chance to settle in with the group and from what we are seeing, it’s not going to be as difficult, probably the same thing that happened to Gaston [Sirino] who immediately fitted in and was able to help the team.”
Sundowns are next in action on Monday when they will face Baroka in the league, before two tricky away games in the CAF Champions League at Al Merreikh and Al Ahly.
Story by David Kappel (@kappilinho).
