Rhulani Mokwena insists Thembinkosi Lorch is a key player for Sundowns

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rhulani Mokwena is delighted with how Thembinkosi Lorch is settling into his squad.

Lorch has divided fan opinion since joining Sundowns.

Thembinkosi Lorch is a key player for Sundowns

However, Mokwena believes that he is a key player in his squad.

“He’s ready now, he’s ready, I see him in the change room,” Mokwena said after Sundowns beat Chippa United.

“It’s a lot of things, he comes from a team where he’s established the hierarchy because of the number of years so in the change room he’s going to position in the dynamics within the group.

“So he comes into the Sundowns change room, he’s got history and the profile, but he’s got to establish himself in the hierarchy, in the structure, in the dynamics within the group. 

“And of course Lorch with his personality.

“I know because I worked with him, and I know when he’s settled and when he’s not.

“So when he arrives I could see, I look at the body language, I look, and now I can see a little bit more enthusiastic, he’s got a spring on his step. And that’s what I was waiting for, and you can’t rush that.

“That is the Mother Nature takes that and it’s the same with Tashreeq, it is the same with Esquivel. 

“It’s small things and you see how he interacts with even the ones on top of the food chain, in everything you’ve got that and now you see he gets their trust, they accept him into the group.”

Into the ‘core group’ he goes

If given responsibility, Lorch will thrive says the coach.

“He’s smiling, he connect the passes in the Rondo’s, he’s is in the group, he’s trusted, he’s given the ball even in tight spaces.

“And that is because he has earned their trust. And Tash has done the same already now, Zuko has done the same and you hear it, you see it and you see even when they hand out bibs to each other you, small things that you look for within the group dynamics,” Mokwena said according to iDiski Times.

“It’s not about being a good player, they wouldn’t be here if they were not good players but it’s the smaller things and those are the things I always look out for and sometimes those assist the transition of the individuals and for Lorch I think now he is in the core group and that’s what we brought him here for.”