Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso says he made six changes to his side for the Betway Premiership victory over Stellenbosch to manage the fitness of his players.
Cardoso’s first game in charge of the Brazilians since replacing Manqoba Mngqithi was a 1-0 CAF Champions League win over Raja Casablanca on Sunday.
They recorded a 1-0 result away to Stellies on Wednesday and next face AmaZulu on Tuesday and Richards Bay on Saturday, ahead of another Champions League clash with Raja on January 3 2025.
Cardoso explained on IOL: “Obviously, we changed players from last game to today. Some of them because we needed to manage the fatigue. Some others because they had small issues.”
But the new coach added that he also had to consider the threat of Stellenbosch when selecting his team.
“But the question here is how we believe in all the players. Obviously, they are in different levels,” added Cardoso.
“Some of them are young, some of them are more experienced. Some of them also have their own characteristics that allow us to cope with the moments of the game and with the different teams we are facing.
“For example, today we knew that we needed quick players so that we can control these spaces when we deal with long balls.
“So the question is indeed how much you can progress in the future. I think that we need obviously to be as much clever as possible to understand what is other team providing us on the game.”