Good win but room for improvement, says Sundowns coach

Mamelodi Sundowns may have handed Kaizer Chiefs an embarrassing 3-0 thumping on the opening day of the season at the weekend but co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi is not satisfied.

Sundowns got the defence of their league title off to an impressive start at FNB Stadium but Mngqithi‚ who was appointed as co-coach with Rulani Mokwena after former head coach Pitso Mosimane’s departure to Al Ahly in Egypt in September‚ wants more from his charges.

Mngqithi said the players achieved good things against Chiefs but is concerned about the number of chances they wasted in front of goal.

“One must just comment on the good work the players have done‚” he said. “They put in a very good shift, but I am a little bit unhappy with the number of chances we created and did not convert.

“I believe that we could easily have scored five or six if you check the chances  we created.

“We could have scored a lot more goals in the first half because we got some opportunities that we could have used but unfortunately we did not.

“In the second half it got a little  scrappy‚ not as organised‚ more especially offensively‚ because we did not get our passing patterns the right way. But in patches we still managed to create some good moments.”

Mngqithi said they still have a lot of work to do before Sundowns are firing on all cylinders. He was happy that goalkeeper Denis Onyango kept a clean sheet.

“I think this is a performance that we can build on‚ but we still have a long way to go because the team is not at a level one would like it to be.

“There is still a lot of work to be done‚ more especially in keeping possession and taking care of the ball. One must also comment on the good work done by coach Rhulani Mokwena and [senior coach] Steve Komphela on the set-piece we scored from because they were busy with it [on Friday] and it paid off [on Saturday].

“One must really give credit to the good work that they have done. That is why it is important to have a team of people that are capable of making sure we get the outcomes we are looking for. It was a good delivery from Rivaldo [Coetzee] and a good finish from Peter [Shalulile].

“The first half looked good‚ we had a lot of good playing angles‚ good passing patterns‚ but I still feel we were not assertive enough,” Mngqithi said.