Mashaba confused how Mamelodi Sundowns' coaches will work together

Legendary South African coach Ephraim 'Shakes' Mashaba says the appointment of Steve Komphela as Mamelodi Sundowns senior coach is confusing. 

Komphela is holding a senior coaching position alongside Manqoba Mngqithi and Rhulani Mokwena after his shock resignation as Lamontville Golden Arrows head coach. 

The Masandawana management has had to make changes to their technical team following Pitso Mosimane's departure and Mashaba, is not quite sure how the experiment is going to work out.

“I am still trying to think how this will work," Mashaba told The Citizen. 

"My question is how are they going to make decisions and will they listen to each other?" he asked.

Komphela is expected to report to co-coaches Mngqithi and Mokwena, who served as Mosimane's assistants at the Chloorkop-based giants.

However, Sundowns have explained that the opinion of Mngqithi prevails when there isn’t consensus between him and Mokwena.

"For me, it sounds a bit confusing because the two coaches were doing well at the club and now you bring in another coach who has been doing well at his former club," Mashaba said. 

“Rhulani once left Sundowns. Did we know what chased him out? What if it was a question of power? But let us give it a chance and see how it will work."

Mngqithi and Komphela are both experienced coaches, while Mokwena is a young up-and-coming coach having had short stints with Orlando Pirates and Chippa United.

Mashaba went on to advise the trio to stick together as a unit and work well together with Sundowns under pressure to defend the PSL title and Nedbank Cup in the new season.

"Rhulani is still coming up and he is maturing and if you look at the combinations, there is space for good progress,” the former Bafana Bafana coach added.

“What will help them is dropping the ‘I’ and start using ‘we’. But it is not easy to hear people talking about ‘we’. 

"If it does happen that in front of people they say they are working well together, the danger of that is that they can go behind each other’s back, saying things like ‘I am the one who is making the team tick’."

The trio's first competitive match in charge of Sundowns will be against Bloemfontein Celtic in the 2020 MTN8 quarter-final match on Sunday.

 “What they need to deal with is egos because in this situation everyone wants accolades in a team like Sundowns.”