“Because we must also be honest, it’s very difficult for any other team to compete with so many capable coaches sharing their opinions within the group to make sure this thing is better and having those debates that are very critical.
“In other environments, these debates are not between coaches. These debates are between the coach and the boss.
“But at Sundowns, the chairman [Tlhopie Motsepe] gives us the authority to make these decisions as coaches, as analysts together, and we sit in this panel of more than 20 people and we discuss the finer details of every game. And those marginal gains at some points do make us look better than others because we dig a little bit deeper.”
Thapelo Morena scored on 120 minutes against Gallants to give Sundowns their treble after Peter Shalulile’s first-half goal was cancelled by Junior Dion in the second half to send the final to extra time at Royal Bafokeng Stadium.
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Mngqithi: Coaches’ independence is the secret to Sundowns’ success
Image: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi says the club’s dominance in SA football is because of the independence the technical team enjoys from team management.
Sundowns had complete dominance in domestic football in 2021-2022 with a clean sweep of trophies when they beat Marumo Gallants 2-1 in the Nedbank Cup final in Rustenburg on Saturday night to add to the DStv Premiership and MTN8.
Mngqithi said he did not believe the gap in quality between Sundowns and their rivals was huge. He praised the club’s bosses for not interfering with the job of the coaches.
“I will not agree [that the gap is big] because when you look at the statistics in this game in this day and age, you have to be very objective.
“And for you to be objective you must use a lot of data to justify that it is a real dominance or maybe it’s those margins here and there where we’ve got some marginal gains as a result of the technical team we have.”
Mngqithi shares the hotseat at Masandwana with co-coach Rulani Mokwena and senior coach Steve Komphela.
Sundowns clinch the treble with Nedbank Cup win
“Because we must also be honest, it’s very difficult for any other team to compete with so many capable coaches sharing their opinions within the group to make sure this thing is better and having those debates that are very critical.
“In other environments, these debates are not between coaches. These debates are between the coach and the boss.
“But at Sundowns, the chairman [Tlhopie Motsepe] gives us the authority to make these decisions as coaches, as analysts together, and we sit in this panel of more than 20 people and we discuss the finer details of every game. And those marginal gains at some points do make us look better than others because we dig a little bit deeper.”
Thapelo Morena scored on 120 minutes against Gallants to give Sundowns their treble after Peter Shalulile’s first-half goal was cancelled by Junior Dion in the second half to send the final to extra time at Royal Bafokeng Stadium.
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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