Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has explained the factors behind his team’s recent lack of cutting edge in front of goals, with the Brazilians managing to score only eight goals across all competitions since the beginning of March.
The Chloorkop-based outfit enjoyed a good spell of free-scoring football in the wake of the Portuguese tactician’s appointment as Manqoba Mngqithi’s successor in December, scoring 38 goals in 17 matches in all competitions.
Now, with key players like Lucas Ribeiro Costa enduring a dry period with no goal, Sundowns are on a six-game run without scoring more than one goal in a match, having last achieved the feat in a 2-0 win over AmaZulu in the Betway Premiership last month.
The former Esperance de Tunis mentor attributed the goal-scoring issues to the caliber of opponents they have been facing lately, with the business end of the season fast approaching as they compete on all fronts for silverware.
“It’s important to understand which kind of games you’re playing because last games we played it was two times against Esperance, it was the match of Sekhukhune [in the Nedbank Cup] that we scored one in normal time in the 90th minute, but it was not given but okay we scored one, we went over,” Cardoso said.
“And then we played Al Ahly, we played a Nedbank Cup semi-final against Chiefs. It’s important to understand who you’re playing with, not against, also for sure the numbers will drop in terms of goals scored – it’s normal when you increase the level of the opponents.”
Moreover, Cardoso believes their opponents began to adopt a low-block approach as a result of their high-scoring form, highlighting that facing such opponents makes it difficult to create clear-cut goal-scoring opportunities.
“But also, it’s important that you understand from the moment we score four goals, go check how the teams played against us – most of them in a back five, some of them in a back six, dropping their wingers, following our full-backs and because of that we struggle to create,” he added.
“When we played AmaZulu, you saw the game was very narrow, it was not a beautiful one because they defended, defended, and defended. When we played Sekhukhune, it was the same, they defended for 90 minutes plus 30 minutes.”
“But [I’m] not disrespecting those teams intentionally, I’m just stating the [facts]. And then it’s obvious when they close too much, you will not score goals out of the sky, coming from the sky. You just need to score more than them.”
He continued: “And I believe from now on until the end of the season, that’s what we’re going to face, a lot of narrow teams with high stimulus to not concede from us but I also believe that we will always score more than the opponents to get the results we want to get.”
The Tshwane giants will travel to Cairo for the return leg of their CAF Champions League semi-final clash against title holders Al Ahly on Friday, after the two sides played to a goalless draw in the capital on Saturday.
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