After being unable to win the first two trophies on offer, Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Manqoba Mngqithi has justified why he changed the team's style of play.
As a sole head coach Rulani Mokwena, formerly at Sundowns, raised the bar highly in the 2023/24 season, after reached the MTN8 final, won the inaugural African Football League, was again in the final of the Nedbank Cup and the dominance of Masandawana in the Premiership, was such that they only lost their first game in the last matchday.
After being given the reigns as Mokwena's successor, Mngqithi was expected to go with continuity and keep the style of play that made Masandawana to be feared locally and on the continent.
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However, the former Golden Arrows coach developed a new playing style, where although they look a little bit more clinical upfront, the Tshwane giants were knocked out of the MTN8, lost the Carling Knockout final and have already lost one game in the league.
There were suggestions that the new style of play could have been imposed on Mngqithi by Sporting Director Flemming Berg but the 53-year-old mentor has suggested that he has always believed in quick football, with wing play.
"I've always been a coach who believes in a game of football that is faster. Even with coach Pitso Mosimane there were a lot of moments where we used speed in wing play to exploit the opponents. I remember the combination of Hlompho Kekana and a [Tebogo] Langerman, opened up teams a lot," Mngqithi said in an interview on Metro FM Sports.
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"We had a lot of wing play at the time, that's why we brought even players like Thapelo [Morena], because we wanted to use a lot of wing play. But there was a slight change when Rulani came in because he did not like the usage of width. He wanted us to use minimal width, which was working for him, because we were winning matches and controlling matches.
"But sometimes we're not creating enough chances and when we don't create enough, you must know in our team, in our country we miss a lot of chances. So the plan was to try to create a little bit more, so that even when we miss we're still able to get a few more that you can convert," Mngqithi added.
The KwaZulu-Natal native coach will be under pressure to get Sundowns their first victory in the CAF Champions League group stages away in Morocco against AS FAR Rabat on Saturday evening.
