Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Marcelo Allende believes they have recovered from the difficult start to their season and the squad has the right mindset to achieve their targets.
With head coach Miguel Cardoso stating that their indifferent start was due to a lack of pre-season, recovery after the FIFA Club World Cup, the performances of the squad were not up to their usual standards.
The controversial exit of star forward Lucas Ribeiro Costa was also a major loss for Sundowns, and the MTN8 and Carling Knockout Cup exit compounded further criticism on the technical team and squad.
“Obviously we didn’t start the season in the way we wanted, with the results we wanted, out of two cups on penalties, but the team has collected energy, moving forward, we feel stronger, we can recover [from the poor start],” he said.
“But the focus on the team is on the mindset so we can make sure we can continue winning matches and achieve our targets this season.”
How Sundowns Can Reach The Final Again
Allende also discussed their shortcoming in the competition, which the club won for the first and last time in 2016 – but in the last two editions, reached the semi-finals and the final – where they lost to Cardoso’s Esperance Sportive de Tunis and Pyramids, respectively.
“We know how to arrive to the final, we need to go game by game [in the Champions League], we start this weekend – we know there’s small details we need to get right,” Allende said.
“You only arrive at the final stages with many wins and experience, but if we think about the future, we will maybe never arrive there, we just focus on the daily basis, the next day is important and fighting for what you want.”
Sundowns host Lupopo at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday for their group opener at 15h00.