In his own words, Mngqithi said Sundowns need a left centre-back as they currently have one in Mosa Lebusa.
Sundowns lost Ricardo Nascimento during the January transfer window, and they were still expected to replace him ahead of the new season.
But Mngqithi’s worry stems from the fact that Sundowns have had to contend with the injuries suffered by three of their central defenders in Brian Onyango, Rushine de Reuck and Grant Kekana.
In addition, Mngqithi said the injury to Rivaldo Coetzee earlier this season means Sundowns need to beef the central midfield with at least one more player.
However, he feels they need a central midfielder different to Coetzee, citing physique as one of the things they will look at when recruiting.
And lastly, Mngqithi revealed that Sundowns need to reinforce their striking department even though they outscored all the other PSL teams this season.
Mngqithi added that the Tshwane giants relied heavily on Peter Shalulile who has, so far, netted 28 goals across all competitions.
He added that based on the number of goalscoring chances Sundowns create week in and week out, they should be scoring more, and for that reason, they need to look to reinforce.
MNGQITHI IDENTIFIES THREE AREAS MAMELODI SUNDOWNS SHOULD BEEF UP
“We only have Mosa Lebusa as a left centre-back. As it is now, we’ve got three centre-backs out – Brian, Rush and Grant – and that already says, if we excluded the semi-finals of the Champions League, we would have played with that central defence, and that says it’s an area that we need to look at,” said Mngqithi to reporters.
“Central midfield… we lost Riva earlier in the season, and we might still reinforce, probably with a bit of a different profile in central midfielder in terms of the physical profile and all the other elements that may be important in that space.”
“And upfront, in as much as we scored a lot of goals, we have not scored enough in terms of the chances we created. We turned to rely on Peter even if there are many other players who chipped in with a few goals.”
“But I do believe we might still look to reinforce that area, and there are other areas that, probably, they are not as primary as those because those three, they really do need reinforcement,” concluded Mngqithi.