Hunt: We are playing catch-up

Gavin Hunt says everybody else in the DStv Premiership is playing for second place as he expects Mamelodi Sundowns to walk away with another league title.


The Brazilians scooped a record fifth South African top-flight league success last season, alongside claiming the MTN8 trophy and Nedbank Cup.

They they ended a massive 16 points ahead of runners-up Cape Town City, losing just three games while drawing eight times, but this time around the club have already lost once and drawn twice from just their opening six fixtures.

But ahead of facing Sundowns in an MTN8 quarter-final clash at the Tuks Stadium on Sunday, and then in the league just a week later, Hunt insisted that there is no comparison between the two sides.

SuperSport have so far picked up one win, two draws and two losses.

He said on IOL: “There is no doubt about it, Sundowns are streaks ahead of everybody, so we are just going to have to face it and try and put out a way of playing and try to be competitive and, hopefully, the rest will take care of itself.

“(Sundowns) have a way of playing and it is there for everyone to see. They don’t have to change anything.

“They can put out any XI and I think they would come first, second and third in the PSL. It doesn’t really matter from that perspective. We know that they certainly have qualities that are of a much higher level than everybody else.”

Hunt added that his side will need to be tactically on point if they are to get a result.

“If we have a football match, we will lose. So, how we go about it takes a lot of game intelligence and that can only be practiced and explained,” the coach explained.

“We have to do things a bit different and that’s through finer things that we can try and do. We have an idea, but I mean we need to implement those things and that takes intelligence.

“It takes a little bit of know-how, a little bit of humility. If you understand football, then you need to be humble about these things.”