‘Sundowns struggled this season with centre backs’ – Modise

The former Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder who is now their ambassador, Teko Modise has given the club a piece of advice as they will start the preparations for the next season.

Modise feels that Masandawana still need to reinforce their squad despite having been hailed by many for having the best squad in the DStv Premiership.

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With Bafana BaStyle having lost 3-0 against Stellenbosch this past weekend, their defense was exposed and Modise feels that the club must bolster their central defense.

“I think there is a need to go into the market. I think Mamelodi Sundowns struggled this season with center-backs. You’ve seen a lot of changes with the center-backs and you’ve seen the injuries they’ve had. There’s balance in midfield, but there’s always a question with the center-backs,” Modise said as per Soccer Laduma.

“That became critical when it came to the Champions League, where if they had the most consistent center-back pairing, they could have defended a bit better. But because they are a team that’s ambitious, they will look at beefing up in that department because you are looking at the Champions League. If you realise, Sundowns get knocked out not because they did not play well, but what they could have done better. So, I think that’s the department they could look at in my opinion.”

A few months ago, Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mnqithi also alluded to the need to sign a defender since they lost Ricardo Nascimento to Royal AM creating a space for their January acquisition of midfielder Erwin Saavedra. He also added that they’d need another striker as they are relying too much on Peter Shalulile.

“We were too reliant on Peter as much as there were many other players that shipped in with a few goals. I do believe we might still look to reinforce that area,” he told the media.

“We lost Ricardo Nascimento in the left center-back position, so we only have Mosa Lebusa as a left center-back. “As it is now, we’ve three center-backs out with Brian [Onyango], Rushine [De Reuck], and Grant [Kekana].”

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The Brazilians recently won their 5th straight league title this season which makes it safe to say they have no competition in the league. Downs won MTN 8 in the early days of the current campaign and are on their way to the final of the Nedbank Cup to take on Marumo Gallants.

However, Masandawana are surely eyeing CAF Champions League next season after they were knocked out of this year’s competition in the quarter-finals for the third time consecutively.