Cardoso demands improvement despite Stellies win

Improvement is needed from Mamelodi Sundowns said new coach Miguel Cardoso after their 1-0 win over Stellenbosch in the Betway Premiership on Wednesday, but he will not be introducing any drastic changes.

A first half goal from Iqraam Rayners against his former side saw Sundowns gain some revenge over a Stellenbosch team who had earlier in the season beaten them twice over the two legs of their MTN8 semifinal.

“The team needs to improve but it’s not a question of the players. Obviously, we changed the line-up from the last game (against Raja Casablanca) to this one (Stellenbsoch), because we needed to manage fatigue for some of them,” said Cardoso after the victory at the Cape Town Stadium.

“But the question here is how we believe in all the players. Obviously, they are at different levels. Some of them are young, some of them are more experienced. Some of them also have their own characteristics that allow us to cope with moments of the game and with the different teams we are facing.

“For example, we knew that we needed quick players (against Stellenbosch) so that we can control the spaces when we deal with long balls. I think that we need to be as clever as possible to understand what the other team is putting up against us in the game,” Cardoso added.

“It was a challenge but wonderful work from ourselves in preparing the game and the answer from the players was unbelievable. Football is a little bit like this. We have moments where it can control. We want to make these moments as plentiful as possible, but there are other moments when the other team also plays, and we need to respect that and be together, understand what we need to have in order to control the way the opponents play.”

Sundowns will have only one day this week before their Christmas Eve clash away against AmaZulu in Durban

“We need this week mostly to give some rest to some players. We have a couple of players that are injured, some of them in the long term, but some others that have small issues that means we can have them back, probably in 1-2 weeks. And we need this air, let's say, to breathe.

“But also at the same time, obviously, we need time for preparation. So we need the practices, but we also cannot push the players too much. We must be clever on managing the effort and we must be clever also managing the training sessions, so that we don't take them one too much on one side, but also we don't stop progressing in the work. So quite a challenge, but a wonderful challenge,” Cardoso added.