Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has highlighted what he likes about the club’s new signing Junior Mendieta.
Junior Mendieta recently joined Sundowns from Stellenbosch FC and formed part of the club’s pre-season tour to the Netherlands.
That’s where the attacker impressed coach Mokwena as Sundowns played four games against European teams. The South African champions claimed three wins and one draw.
Mamelodi Sundowns played out to a 2-2 draw with Gent before beating Go Ahead Eagles 1-0. They hammered Sparta Rotterdam 4-1 before concluding their tour with a 2-1 win over NAC Breda.
MOKWENA ON MENDIETA’S QUALITIES
“Mendieta provides us with dynamism, especially in that number 10 position,” said Mokwena.
“He’s a 10 that can project himself into a 9, and that gives us good versatility with regards to how we want to play, the schemes [and] the organisational forms that we can adopt. Mendieta has got a lot of very good qualities that suit the way we want to play.”
“He’s got a very good capacity from a motor qualities type of perspective, and then also he’s very aggressive in his football actions – particularly his counter-pressing and pressing actions were very important for Stellenbosch for the last couple of seasons, particularly his influence in trying to win the ball in an area is closer to the box.”
Mokwena also stated that the Argentine star has several good qualities as a player. Among those qualities are his incredible work ethic and attitude.
Last season, Mendieta scored 10 goals and provided nine assists in all competitions. He proved to be one of the top midfielders in the PLS.
“The one thing that a lot of people don’t know about Mendieta is that on set pieces, he’s very strong, both in terms of the technical delivery of his contribution of set pieces and also on defensive set pieces,” added Mokwena.
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“He’s got a very good elevation [and] he was extremely important for Stellenbosch on how they defended their set plays. He brings a lot of qualities to our team, he’s also got the mentality, he is extremely humble [and] he works very hard. We saw it also on Mandela Day, where he painted the entire wall all by himself.”
“He ticks a lot of boxes from a technical and tactical perspective but also from a personality perspective, [he is] the type of player that we like – passionate, aggressive and extremely competitive.
“Of course, also the fact that he comes from a football nation like Argentina where they are extremely obsessed about the game, and you could see that passion and that aggression.”