Cardoso: I Had A Meeting With Zwane & Onyan…

Photo by Daniel Hlongwane/Gallo Images

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has revealed details about a recent meeting he had with veteran goalkeeper, Denis Onyango and midfield-maestro, Themba Zwane about their roles in the team ahead of the current season.

Talking to the media on Monday afternoon, Cardoso said that the two veterans are important members of the team not just on field but off the field as well.

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“Themba is a very important player for us. He is an important player still by what he can do in any pitch. You remember the first match he played in the MTN 8 Cup. He entered, he picked the ball in the back, he made two or three combinations, he progressed the ball together with other players. The combining and he did the assist for the goal,” Cardoso told reporters.

So, never Miguel as a coach having Themba in the squad, we look at him just as a number. Not, well, as a number like the others,  but as a player that you cannot think about.  Age is not that, age is not simply like that.  But he is much more important than that. Exactly by the example of his silent leadership. By example, by the way he commits. By the way of everything he does in a regular basis because he trains wonderfully every day,” Cardoso observed.

In addition, Cardoso said that he had a talk with him and Denis Onyango on how he wants to use them this season which both players were happy with.

“Of course, I had a talk with him, but he is so big as a human being that it was not me calling him it was him coming to me and it was not only him. Him and Denis (Onyango). So, both of them came to me two weeks ago and they said, before the first match of the MTN 8and they said, coach we just want you to feel in peace regarding ourselves.

“We just want you to feel absolutely 100% free to make your choices without worrying about our past.  And I just told them, look guys I’m absolutely just more certain about the level of human beings you are. Because it’s important to have that understanding from their side, obviously. On the question of the goalkeeper,  obviously it becomes even more difficult,  because we have to make a movement on Ricardo (Goss) that makes things a little bit more difficult for Denis and on that talk, immediately I told them, look, Themba, just for you to understand,  tomorrow you are on the team. Denis, for you to understand, tomorrow you are not on the team. 

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“Because that is the way, honest that I speak with my players and I told them, Themba, I will let you stay out. When I feel it’s time I will put you in when I feel the team needs you and I will eventually use you sometimes even not just bring you together or let you stay because I need to embrace my players and they are all players. There are no players that are not players.

“They are all players. So they can all be useful.  Obviously, there are people that and in the front, you saw, I spoke about that on the last press conference,  I think this year we have more capacity,  in terms of changing players.”

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