New head coach Miguel Cardoso has been given every chance of making a flying start to his tenure at Mamelodi Sundowns.
The slick administration at the club’s Chloorkop head office has cut through the red tape, and the Portuguese coach Cardoso has been issued a work permit in no time.
Instead of directing from the Loftus Versfeld grandstand, Cardoso will be on the team bench for Sunday’s CAF Champions League Group B clash against Moroccan heavyweights Raja Casablanca, who are three-time champions.
Cardoso held his first training session at the Chloorkop complex on Wednesday, and wasted no time implementing his style of play.
He had already studied the players and said they “are technically well-developed” to fit into his game-plan.
“These players suit the game of a coach that wants to impose himself on the game,” said Cardoso.
“Because that is the base: to have quality players. I struggled to impose myself where the quality could not sustain what I wanted to put in.
“We (the coach and the new assistants) have had to study the team and the players, and it’s obvious that the players are technically well-developed.
“I want a team that can control the games. Controlling the games means the team must be solid in the four moments of the game.
“They must understand very well what to do with the ball – obviously – but as I have in mind. You have to have the ball to move – not the ball, but the opponent to find the right spaces to attack those spaces.”
Cardoso will not take too kindly to Sundowns turning over possession. When it does happen, he expects the players to fight back and recover the lost ball.
“Having control of the game also has to do with being aggressive in the moment you lose the ball,” said Cardoso, “because as much as you control the game, there is a moment where you are going to lose the ball, and you need to be strong in that moment.
“I think it’s a huge responsibility among the players. I prefer the players to run for three or four seconds and try to recover the ball immediately. They should rather do this, reorganise, and defend to win the ball and try to go forward again.
“When teams play against Sundowns, we need to understand this question of the spaces. Where are the spaces? How we can create, how we should utilise and use the spaces there are in the game.”
As Cardoso heads off for his first match on Mzansi soil, he’ll be ever mindful of his mandate, as decided by Sundowns’ sporting director, Flemming Berg.
It goes: “The mandate for any head coach of Mamelodi Sundowns is clear: It is to win every competition we participate in.
“If that is the possibility for the (Fifa) Club World Cup, I will let other people make that valuation, but in general, that’s the mandate for all head coaches at Mamelodi Sundowns and for coach Miguel.”