Sundowns dominance reflection of the league - Manqoba Mngqithi

The Downs mentor was responding to a question from SABC Sport over whether the reigning Betway Premiership champions will again be runaway leaders ahead of the 2024/25 season kick off next week.

Mngqithi elaborated on his view.

"To be honest, I think the reason why sometimes we end up winning the league with very big margins is not necessarily because of how good we are, sometimes it's because of how good the league is because most teams beat each other," Mnqithi said.

"Because of that, of no clarity who wins regularly and consistently, we will always be viewed as the favourites because we happen to win regularly sometimes when other teams can easily beat this one this time around but the following week it's a different story.

“Most teams are always worried about playing against Sundowns and beating Sundowns but I also know that we can play against one team and that team beats us twice in the league but if they don't beat the other teams, which are the so-called smaller teams, we will still come back triumphant because there are many of those and there are less of these ones that will really give you a tough time and make life very difficult for you."

Part of continuing to be superior to their counterparts is having a strong squad, and Mngqithi suggested Sundowns will not be adding more numbers as they would risk the dressing room being bloated.

"The numbers that we have suggest that if we go beyond this, we might not be able to even train the team properly. Even the two friendlies that we organise sometimes are not enough because we've got more players than two friendly matches,” he added.

“So, it's important that we also keep the core of the squad together and everybody feels they've got a role to play. Probably rotate the squad as much as possible to make sure that everybody feels interested and part of the success."