Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena says he’s worried about Peter Shalulile but feels he’ll return to his usual scoring form soon.
Shalulile, 30, has won three DStv Premiership Golden Boots and is widely considered one of the greatest strikers on the continent.
However, his form has been patchy of late with his only goal in 2024 coming against TP Mazembe from the penalty spot, while he never found the net in four games for Namibia at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
“I would lie to you if I said it doesn’t worry me, I’m trying for him not to see it worries me, I speak to him quite a lot, we spoke just before training, in fact, we had a session today and a lot of it was focused on the final third,” Mokwena said about Shalulile’s indifferent form.
“And funny… he was banging goals in, with his left foot. And I said to him is this the return of Peter Shalulile? He looked at me and said, ‘no it’s the return of the left foot’, so I’m hoping he continues like this, we do a bit of work for him.”
Mokwena emphasised that Shalulile and all the Masandawana players’ contributions transcend beyond scoring goals.
However, beyond his 10 goals, Ribeiro’s 13 and Sirino’s five, three of which was a hattrick against La Masia, their next top scorer is Grant Kekana with four, which should raise questions based on their attacking talent in their ranks this season.
“As I said, before, all the players, they have to contribute to a game is a bit more detailed than just putting the ball into the back of the net for the strikers, there’s so much work they have to do, in and out of possession, as long as I see that, I’m very happy,” he explained.
“I know the goals will come for sure, every single striker, you go from Benzema, Ronaldo, Haaland… look at the Manchester Derby, he missed an easy [chance] he tried to place it where he could have headered it – but he scored after that, a more difficult one.
“Strikers go through these situations and you just have to support them, fortunately, he has good teammates around him and the support and help him, he will be fine.”
