Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has shared his thoughts on Monnapule Saleng after making his long-awaited debut for the club on Sunday.
Saleng came in with 10 minutes to play during their 3-1 win against Sekhukhune United at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
The 27-year-old made an immediate impact proving an assist for Iqraam Rayners in only a minute in the field.
Saleng was signed from rivals Orlando Pirates during the January transfer window period, but couldn’t feature because of an injury.
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Speaking after the match, Cardoso hailed Saleng’s impact and also hinted that he could feature in different roles for the club.
“Saleng did well. He’s a player who is high quality and can play outside on the right or left. You know him even better than myself,” said Cardoso.
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“Unfortunately, I just started with him lately because he was injured, but he made a fantastic recovery. We never wanted to put pressure on his comeback, and we should still not. Obviously, he’s recovered, but he’s also getting conditioning and understanding what we want from him.
“He can play outside and inside, so don’t get surprised if you see him having different positions on the pitch. Today we needed to keep the structure, especially because [Khuliso] Mudau was struggling with an ankle and we could not expose him too much in attack,” he added.
“We also didn’t want to expose ourselves too much in defence. So we decided to operate him at the right moment when Tashreeq [Matthews] was already lacking energy. It worked very well for the team. I still have to review the game, but I think that was his action that led to Iqraam’s goal and very good execution.”
“I think it’s clear that teams need players who can aggress defenders. They need players to start matches like that, but clubs like Sundowns also need a bench with players who can do that at a moment when teams are tired.”
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