Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso was left questioning whether or not some of his players are on the competitive level he requires, while appearing to deflect blame from himself after Saturday’s Nedbank Cup exit.
The Brazilians were sent crashing out of the Nedbank Cup after falling 2-0 to TS Galaxy at Solomon Mhlangu Stadium. Siphamandla Ngwenya and Junior Zindoga’s first-half goals sank the Brazilians, who now cannot win a treble this season.
Exiting from the Nedbank Cup leaves Masandawana with the Betway Premiership and CAF Champions League to play for this season. Missing out on the MTN8, Carling Knockout and now the latest Cup setback might reflect badly on Cardoso and his men as lacking teeth.
That has left the Portuguese coach having to endure stern criticism for the better part of this season. On some occasions, angry Sundowns fans have also turned against him, calling for his dismissal.
Saturday’s defeat came soon after a brief resurgence which saw Sundowns beat MC Alger 2-0 to reach the Champions League quarter-finals. They arrived at Solomon Mahlangu fresh from edging Orlando Pirates 2-1 in a PSL game three days earlier.
But that now reads like a false revival and Cardoso was left aiming for his players after rotating his team from the side that faced Pirates.
CARDOSO QUESTIONS WHO DESERVES THE OPPORTUNITIES HE IS GIVING HIS MEN
“Look, we need to be objective and clear on the analysis. The goals that we suffered don’t have to do with our line-up. There are absolutely individual mistakes that obviously we cannot make,” said Cardoso.
“It’s time to go home, rest and obviously understand who is able to be on the level of those matches and not. Because we cannot make those mistakes, it’s clear that it means everything is wrong.
“It’s not just an evaluation we need to do; we need to go beyond that, but we also need to understand who deserves these opportunities that we’re giving them.
“These kind of matches you cannot consistently not convert chances. In the second half, we had one from Tashreeq [Matthews] and it’s unbelievable.”
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