Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi says the freshness of influential attacking midfielder Gaston Sirino is like the club signing a new player close to the end of the season.

Sirino was included in the starting line-up for the Brazilians in their 5-0 Nedbank Cup quarterfinal thrashing of minnows Summerfield Dynamos at Loftus on Saturday night and returned with a man-of-the-match performance.

Sirino, who has seen little action for Sundowns this season, scored the opening goal after eight minutes and went on to make two assists for goals by Kermit Erasmus.

Sundowns’ win was secured through first-half goals by Sirino and Lesedi Kapinga and a second-half brace by Erasmus, who is returning to his goalscoring form; and a late header by Pavol Šafranko.

“At this stage, a player like Gaston is like a new acquisition for us,” said Mngqithi after the match.

“We are excited as the technical team because when you look at Gaston you are saying this is one additional member to the squad, because he has not played and he is fresh. He can still give us a little bit more freshness in the game and help us going forward.”

Mngqithi said Sirino’s availability is key to the team, like that of Lebogang Maboe, who has recovered from a career-threatening injury, and George Maluleka, who has begun to earn some game time.

“When he [Sirino] performs like he did against Summerfield Dynamos, we get excited and it is the same thing with Lebo because we have gained another player because he has not been around for the longest of time.

“When he [Maboe] is given an opportunity and performs the way he performed against Summerfield, we get excited because for us it’s like a new acquisition.

“The same applies with George. When you see a player who has not been playing given an opportunity and stamping his authority it means we look like a team that has just signed three more players towards the end of the season and that is encouraging.”

Mngqithi said the freshness brought by Sirino, Maboe and Maluleka will allow them to rest older players like Themb Zwane and Surprise Ralani.

“It may not show physically, but the players that have had far too any matches, they get an element of fatigue. Themba Zwane is not young, when we have an opportunity to take him out, so that he has an opportunity to play every match fresh, that is a benefit for us.

“When we have Ralani playing every match, when he is fresh that is a benefit for us, unlike when we have to play him week in and week out and he is burned down and starts to get injured.

“The moment they play fresh, I am sure you could see how Surprise, Zwane, George and Andile Jali played against Swallows.”

Mngqithi said the two early goals helped Downs to settle down and dominate Summerfield.

“We wanted an early goal to make sure that the game took shape immediately. If they are coming with a low block they will be forced to come out to try to equalise.

“We were fortunate to get those two goals, but I think after those goals we gave them a lot of time and space on the ball. Sandile Zuke managed to have a lot of time on the ball during the latter stages of the first half.

“It made us to look like we were defending a bit deep. We tried to push but maybe the players could not understand exactly what we were saying at that time because we were unhappy that they were having diagonal balls going to their fullbacks.

“In the second half we came back with a resolute mind to try and bury the game and force a lot of errors from their centrebacks which we did. There were areas where we were not happy about.”