Mngqithi: Sundowns are targeting Pitso’s 71 points league record

Maybe because they know the DStv Premiership title is in the bag, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi says their target for the remainder of the season is reaching the 71-point mark.

The Brazilians hold the record for most league points in the professional era with 71, which they achieved in the 2015-2016 season, lifting the trophy with a 14-point advantage over second-placed Bidvest Wits under then coach Pitso Mosimane, who is now the coach of Egyptian giants Al Ahly.

Sundowns have 57 points and will better their record by one point to 72 if they win their remaining five matches against Cape Town City, Sekhukhune United, Kaizer Chiefs, Stellenbosch FC and Royal AM.

“Our benchmark for last season was 67 points and if we can improve on that it will be good for us,” Mngqithi said after Sundowns thrashed Golden Arrows 6-0 at Loftus on Tuesday.

“But the biggest benchmark that Sundowns has achieved is 71 points and to get to that means we must win all our remaining matches.

“So, that is the direction we want to take, that is the mentality we have, to try to compete against ourselves.”

Sundowns need two wins from their remaining five matches to secure the league championship.

“We are not looking at how many matches we need to play to win the league.

“Today [Tuesday] we were pushing because this cycle of five games we didn't do as well as we wanted.

“We had to make sure that we win this match so that we have a decent outcome from this cycle of five games, which was not one of our best, but at the same time it was not terrible.

“It was 10 out of 15 points we got out of this cycle, but we wanted more than that. We are going into the next cycle of five matches and we have already spoken about improving our benchmarks.

“Our target is always to better ourselves and to know the challenge that we have in the Champions League is bigger than all of us. We cannot drop the ball and say that even if we get a draw or lose a match it is not important, because we don’t want to develop that culture.

“That culture is dangerous, because once you start drawing and losing more often you get into that mode of surviving and we do not want that. We want to be in the space of competing and we prefer to dominate rather than just survive.”

Sundowns have scored 22 goals in their past five matches in all competitions, but the statistic that pleases Mngqithi more is that the Brazilians have only conceded four during that period.

“When it comes to goals, it is not hefty, but we were only looking to score two. If we score two goals in a match we are happy and if we can keep maybe four clean sheets in five matches we are happy.

“So, when we score 22 we don’t want to get carried away, because that has got the potential of complacency creeping in. We appreciate that the team is scoring, but our focus is to maximise the number of clean sheets, maximise the possibility of scoring more than one goal.

“We believe if we score more than one goal we stand a chance of winning that match.”

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