Pitso: We have four goalkeepers for a reason
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane has explained the reasons behind the club having four goalkeepers on their books this season.
Joining first choice keeper Denis Onyango and his back up Kennedy Mweene is Thela Ngobeni, who returns from a loan spell at Free State Stars and Reyaad Pieterse, who joined from crosstown rivals SuperSport United on Friday.
Mosimane confirmed that Brimah Razak left the Brazilians earlier last week after spending a single season in which he battled to displace Onyango as the preferred choice.
“We have fewer than Orlando Pirates,” the coach said (but in fact the Buccaneers also have four goalkeepers). “Thela is now registered for Champions League because Razak has left, so you can’t go to the Champions League with only two goalkeepers – if one gets injured then you are in trouble. That is why we now have three.”
Pieterse, the youngest of all the goal minders, cut his loses with SuperSport in search of regular game time having played second fiddle to Ronwen Williams, but it seems very unlikely that he would catapult to first choice at Chloorkop.
“Reyaad is cup tied because he played in the Confederation Cup with SuperSport if you remember, so we can’t register him for the Champions League,” Mosimane continued.
“We have four goalkeepers for a reason, not just for the fun of it. Other teams have got five or six goalkeepers. We will think ours is a lot on paper, but look at the competitions we are playing in, we have five competitions and we play more games than anybody else in this country. And there will be Cup of Nations for Denis and Kennedy. We would be in trouble if anything happened to them and we don’t want to be accused of not planning. Okay, the number (of goalies) is not nice, but so is our programme – it’s not amazing. We are responding to that.”
IOL Sport