Impressive Sundowns attacking duo Nasir and Allende in line to start against SuperSport

After beginning their careers impressively at Mamelodi Sundowns, there is the possibility of attackers Abubeker Nasir and Marcelo Allende starting against SuperSport United on Friday night at Lucas Moripe Stadium.

Ethiopian Nasir has made two substitute appearances with one goal in the league, while Chilean Allende has featured in a league and an MTN8 match where he scored a goal apiece to endear themselves to supporters.

As they prepared for their DStv Premiership clash against United,  Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi said there is a possibility of either Nasir or Allende starting or having them both leading the attack.

“I wouldn’t say there is a temptation to start with them,” said Mngqithi.

“I think it will probably be based on the processes we are following inside in terms of the number of minutes we think they can play. If we feel they are ready to give us the 90 minutes, we might decide to start them.

“This is because it was never an issue of whether they can start a match. It was mainly an issue of how far they can go in a match. They have played two matches as substitutes and the possibilities of both or one of them starting is there. We will have to see what happens in our match day minus one training.”

Sundowns take on United for the second time in less than a week and Mngqithi said the situation is difficult.

“The second match in a row is always having a lot inside. One is the level of intrinsic motivation from your players and how much they want it. Also when you have beaten a team in the first match, they come to the second match with nothing to lose.

“But we have very committed bunch of players. The competition among our players also makes them not say 'I want to play less this week' because you know there is someone who is ready and looking forward to take the opportunity if you make a mistake.

“Competition alone increases the level of motivation from our players and maybe the level of focus. There are matches where we are  surprised sometimes, like the game against TS Galaxy where most of our players did not show the performance  we expected.

“It was a very inconsistent performance and that is something very rare with our group of players because they know they have a responsibility to improve or better the previous performance.”