Mngqithi not happy with a few of his Sundowns players after Maniema draw

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi criticised some of his players after the insipid draw with AS Maniema at Loftus Stadium on Tuesday evening.

The Brazilians failed to break down Maniema’s defence and had to settle for a point in their opening match of the Caf Champions League group stage campaign.

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“I think I would have issues with one or two players that I felt that maybe did not give enough effort more than anything else,” Mngqithi said.

“But I think the rest of the players really pushed hard and I was really happy with our last line. I think they performed very well. In the midfield, Tebza (Teboho Mokoena) dominated his space and he did very well against (Jephte) Kitambala.

“I was also impressed with Erwin (Saavedra) and I think he will help us a lot. The players that maybe I would have an issue with are the players that I have some question marks on the level of effort and intensity because I think that’s where most of our mistakes emanated from.”

The 2016 champions are in a tough group that also includes Moroccan champions Raja Casablanca and AS FAR, who were runner’s up in the Botola Pro League last season. Mngqithi is still confident of qualifying for the knockout phase of Africa’s premier club competition. Their next assignment is an away test to AS FAR who beat Raja 2-0 in their group stage opener. 

“I think we’ve got probably more potential to win matches away from home. I see it like that but I also see us winning some matches at home. At this stage, I’ve not pressed any panic buttons because I think it would have been catastrophic had we lost this match after we also lost the (Carling Knockout) final,” said a defiant Mngqithi. 

“If you look at the number of days, number of matches and how much of a change we had to make in the starting line-up … I strongly believe that if you had to take out all those underlying circumstances, then maybe we could’ve been far stronger.

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“I still believe the group that played today gave a good account of themselves. It’s just those final decisions and maybe not taking advantage of some situations where there was a two versus one and we can’t even get a shot at goal. Those are things that will infuriate you but there are a whole lot of positives I can take out under the circumstances.”