Johannesburg – Following his side’s comfortable 2-0 Premiership victory over Golden Arrows in Pretoria on Wednesday, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane praised new signing Thabo Nthethe for a solid first outing for his new club.
Mosimane signed Nthethe on transfer-deadline day last week, having courted the Bafana Bafana international for over 18 months before pinning him down to a lucrative four-year deal on Friday.
“Thabo always plays like this. If you want to buy him and you want to analyse him, you’ll get nothing because he doesn’t make many mistakes,” Mosimane said after the game at Loftus Versfeld.
“He’s not one for tackles, he knows his position well and that’s why he doesn’t need to make tackles. He was a little bit nervous, but he was okay, he adjusted and he did well.”
Nthethe was included in Mosimane’s starting line-up and helped the Brazilians to only their second league clean-sheet this season, the other also coming against Arrows in August last year.
At the other end of the pitch, Anthony Laffor scored his first goal of the season against a hapless 10-man Arrows.
The Durban side suffered their sixth successive defeat, keeping them rooted to the foot of the table and favourites to get axed from the country's top-tier at the end of the season.
Laffor doubled the hosts' lead shortly after half-time, after Khama Billiat had put Sundowns ahead with his superb 10th minute header. The win sent the Brazilians back up to second in the league standings.
“It was good for our confidence to come back. We played four games without winning and above all, we scored two goals,” Mosimane said.
“We average two goals per game and we got that. We dominated obviously, we showed we wanted to win and, at the end, we also showed that we could score more goals.”
The former Bafana Bafana boss was particularly pleased with Billiat, who notched up his fourth Premiership goal of the season.
“I’m happy with the result, the boys did well and I’m happy that Khama Billiat scored.
“I always tell him he plays well, but he plays well without goals… he needs to score more.
“He scored a brilliant header tonight.”
Next up for Sundowns is a tough away tie to Orlando Pirates in Soweto over the weekend, and Mosimane said his troops would remain focused on their own game.
“It’s very important for us to concentrate on ourselves. It’s not important to concentrate on the neighbours, because it’s beyond our control.
“Do what you have to do, keep winning, keep scoring two goals per game… that’s us.
“We play simple football that’s easy to the eye. It’s proper – the ball stays on the ground, we find the angles and that’s the way we have to play.” – Sapa