Fans booed Cardoso on Friday night after Sundowns were held to a 2-2 draw in their CAF Champions League group stage clash against Al Hilal at Loftus Versfeld and were chanting the name of former mentor Pitso Mosimane.

Ahead of Downs’ Betway Premiership encounter against Sekhukhune United at Peter Mokaba Stadium tonight, Tinkler questioned the narrative around Cardoso’s future, suggesting there were forces at play behind reports linking him with an exit.

"Listen, they played the other day with – probably – their third-choice team and still won [against Orbit College], I actually think there's a lot of negativity going around them that is being created for the wrong reasons," said Tinkler.

"Because, truth be told, Sundowns won the league last year with 72 points, am I right? So that's an average of 12 points every five games.

"Are they on track? Yes. They have exactly that amount. So have Sundowns gotten worse? I can understand if people say to me, 'Oh, Sundowns now are not achieving the 12 points per five games, they're now eight points.'

"Then I could sit here and say, 'Ja, there's a problem at Sundowns.' But the fact of the matter is they've got 12 [points] from five [games], so they're still on target to [get] 72 points come the end of the season, which no other team has even come close to."

READ: Tinkler questions Sekhukhune’s mentality against PSL minnows

Tinkler further defended that Sundowns, under Cardoso, have continued to raise the bar in the domestic league.

"The league used to be won [with] 60 points, Sundowns have raised the bar to 72 – we're all trying to pay catch up to that number, so I don't read into that much," he added.

"Because ultimately I know [with] the quality that they possess they're going to be difficult [to beat] and they'll still be up there to win the league, because the points are telling me that and not because of what's happening behind the scenes and blah, blah, blah."

Teams	M	W	L	D	PTS	NET RR
India	4	3	1	0	0
New Zealand	4	1	3	0	0

Finished New Zealand in India T20I Series