Sundowns coach Mngqithi plays down ‘championship favourites’ tag

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi is not interested in entertaining widespread talk that the Brazilians are Premier Soccer League (PSL) champions in waiting.

With the league campaign having reached the business end, Sundowns enjoy an 18-point lead but Mngqithi does not agree that it is a matter of when and not if they will be crowned champions.

The Brazilians brushed aside TS Galaxy 3-0 on Wednesday to increase their advantage at the top of the log but Mngqithi chose to go the humble route after their 15th win of the season.

They may still face a possible late charge by third-placed Kaizer Chiefs who have four games in hand, but they remain overwhelming favourites to win an unprecedented fifth successive league title.

“Our focus is never really on the championship that much, we’ve got processes that we always focus on,” said Mngqithi after their dominant win over TS Galaxy, which was secured through goals by Khuliso Mudau, Haashim Domingo and Peter Shalulile.

“That’s where we gauge whether we have done well or not.

So, we are looking at those processes. As to whether the championship is gone or not, is never really what we focus on.

“We have our own little milestones that we want to achieve as a team, whether the championship can be won earlier or not, we will still be looking at our processes and making sure we better our best performance of last season.”

Last season, the Brazilians won the league with 67 points and Mngqithi pointed out their target is to do better.

“Maybe try to get as close as possible to the unthinkable in terms of the number of points. So, basically, what we are focusing on is not really looking at the gap and everything that everybody else is focused on.”

There were heated moments between TS Galaxy coach Sead Ramović and Steve Komphela on the touchline but Mngqithi dismissed it as one of those things that happen in the heat of the moment.

“I just think that they had heated discussions based on some moments in the game where there were some disagreements. But it is not something one would really want to spend most of his time on because it is normal in football.

“We all get emotional but it was never anything malicious or disrespectful.”