Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi has revealed that they are looking to integrate newly signed duo Sipho Mbule and Ronwen Williams before the pressure mounts.

The Brazilians kicked off their title defence with an impressive 2-0 win over Cape Town City. The coaching staff handed Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams his debut in goals, while Mbule was brought on in the closing stages.

Speaking to the Downs website after the match, Mngqithi explained their thinking in handing debuts to the former SuperSport United players while leaving more experienced members of the squad on the bench.

“He has improved a lot physically, he has lost a lot of weight. He’s still work in progress, and giving him an opportunity today was also to shake off that anxiety and the feeling of wondering what will happen,” Manqoba said on Mbule.

“We think those few minutes might’ve helped us in one way or the other because we could’ve easily played AJ [Andile Jali], Sphelele Mkhulise or any other player.

“But we felt in the last few minutes we should give it to him and probably the same thing that we were thinking of on Ronwen – that they must be inducted and integrated into the team very quickly so that we can get the ball rolling with all of them,” added the coach.

“To play them early so that their integration process is early enough before pressure mounts.”

Sundowns’ next assignment is against TS Galaxy at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Wednesday evening.