Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi admits the team did miss Themba Zwane's presence against Chippa United.
Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi admits the team did miss Themba Zwane's presence against Chippa United.
Sundowns dropped their first points of the season after being held to a goalless draw by Gavin Hunt's charges at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Mngqithi felt it was important to have players who could hold onto the ball bit longer like the absent Zwane.
"The plan was not to have Peter [Shalulile] isolated, what they were doing is that they would immediately kill the space behind Peter and Peter is very comfortable with the space behind the defence," the Sundowns co-coach told SuperSport TV..
"When they kill the space we needed a little bit more from the midfielders to enforce entering the space, the grey zone, that is the space between the midfield and the defence and also to have a little bit more adventure in the wide channels from our full-backs, we could've done better.
"Neo [Maema] started very well but immediately towards 20 minutes or so, you could not see the same aggression and the mentality to try and dribble. And in a game of this nature, it's very important to have people that are willing to hold the ball a little bit longer.
"Which is what Themba Zwane would help us, Gaston [Sirino] we expected that when we realised the game was taking that direction but we ended up having a lot of unnecessary transitions from attack to defence and personally, it was very disappointing for me," he went on.
"I don't think we performed close to our potential because we could do better than this and it is the two points dropped that we will remember at a certain point in the season but let's not be too hard, sometimes in football, you win some, you draw some and you lose some.
"We must also give the players a little bit of a chance, inasmuch as we're unhappy but we know in football you're not going to win every match."
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