After Mamelodi Sundowns' exposure to the FIFA Club World Cup, head coach Miguel Cardoso has hinted on how their game model will evolve coming back home.
In a quick turnaround at Sundowns at the beginning of the season, Manqoba Mngqithi raised eyebrows when he changed the team's style of play from what it was under Rulani Mokwena.
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He emphasized the need for his team to get quicker into the last third and be more decisive, a significant departure from the revered 'Piano and Shoeshine' of slow build-ups and patience on the ball instilled to a higher level by Mokwena.
It appeared the vision to change the style of play was a directive from the office of Sporting Director Flemming Berg, which oversees and monitors how the club should play.
At the Club World Cup, Cardoso seems to have copied and pasted Sundowns' regular way of playing, of slow build-ups and more time on the ball, which he found out was slightly behind the trends showed by superior opposition, who were quicker and decisive.
"I think it's very important everybody understood that the definition of the moments to score and make a difference in some moments was not the best," Cardoso said in reflecting on the lessons learnt at the global tournament, speaking on The Pitchside Podcast.
"With the Germans (Borussia Dortmund), we started the game so well, (with a chance to score), we did not. With Fluminense, we could have scored, but we did not. We were never exactly able to put the emotional side of the game 100 percent on our side, like put the opponent to go to their limit to try to win the matches.
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"The learning process is we understood at this level everything is quicker, we need to pass the ball quicker, we have less time to decide, so decisions sometimes becomes difficult to make or mistakes can happen because we're used to have a lower rotation on the brain to process. Everything is quicker, the pressure is higher, the spaces are less – they exist, but suddenly they are covered. So, we need to grow the intensity of our game on the ball so we can be quicker, take the ball to spaces quicker, we can overcome the lines of opponents quicker," he reflected.
It has to be borne in mind that Cardoso coach did not have pre-season with the Tshwane giants and with back-to-back matches since he joined in December last year, hasn't had proper time to instil his philosophy.
Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
