Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has explained the importance of having a few extra days to prepare for their next assignment.
Cardoso registered his first Betway Premiership victory as head coach of Sundowns on Wednesday evening, as the Tshwane giants edged Stellenbosch FC 1-0 at Cape Town Stadium.
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In just a week of being in the Sundowns hot seat, Cardoso has played two challenging matches, against Raja Casablanca and Stellenbosch FC, but he will have about five days before their next match against AmaZulu at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
This will give him time to get to know his players even more, while some players will get an opportunity to work their way back from injury.
The former Esperance coach has stressed the importance of managing the players, especially with the PSL not having a break during the festive season.
"This week, mostly to give some rest to some players. We have a few players who are injured, some of them in the long term but others who have issues that we can recover in two weeks. We need this air to breathe. I can tell you there is one player who stayed and we gave him two days without training so that he can breathe a little bit and feel himself more comfortable to then proceed with the preparation.
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"Also, we need the practices, but we cannot push them too much. We must be clever in managing the effort. We must also be clever in managing the training sessions, so that we do not take them too much on one side and also don't stop progressing in the work. It's quite a challenge, but a wonderful challenge."
