Form is temporary, but class is permanent for Shalulile
LIFE certainly is tough at the top, and PSL Footballer of the Year Peter Shalulile is finding that out the hard way.
Despite scoring 15 goals last season, and providing crucial assists for his teammates in Mamelodi Sundowns’ run to a fourth successive Premiership title, the Namibian striker still had critics bemoaning some of his misses in front of goal.
And with Shalulile being quiet during the first two league games of the new season, the pressure was further heightened when Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi pointed out a glaring miss that could potentially have changed the course of the game in their goalless draw against Chippa United prior to the international break.
Shalulile, though, is a class act and returned from his time with the Namibian team refreshed to put in an energy-filled shift against Kaizer Chiefs over the weekend, terrorising Amakhosi’s defenders throughout, before producing the icing on the cake when he sealed the 2-0 victory with a tap-in from close range.
“This guy I think is charged by Duracell,” said Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena.
“The reality is Peter is a team player and he sacrifices and puts his body on the line for the team.
“He knows that as it’s what we said to him. We said as long as you are at the service of Mamelodi Sundowns, everything else will fall into place.
“We know that it’s not just in relation to goals and assists, but there is a lot more to Peter, as the movement to create space, to pull out defenders, the high pressure, the schemes sometimes are a little bit complicated and different – but Peter gives us that. “As long as he continues to do that. Maybe the best thing we can do is try to find the expensive cotton wool that we can wrap around him, because he continues to run and run.”
Shalulile will be keen to continue with his goalscoring form when Sundowns next host TS Galaxy in the league on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Mokwena was full of praise for the entire coaching staff, which includes Mngqithi and Steve Komphela, after a difficult week in which he admitted that there had been tension between the three coaches.
“The elephant is out of the room. It’s old news. We move on. The talking is done on the pitch, and I think the players did the talking. Top performance. Credit to the entire team, to the technical staff.
“A very good team performance, even with the subs coming in you could see the intensity and the willingness to assist the team to win the game,” Mokwena said. “We worked a bit on different schemes in preparation for different flexibility because (Chiefs) Stuart Baxter is a top coach.
“Big performance from the players. Big, big performance.”