Mngqithi bemoans Downs' lack of chance creation, decision-making against Polokwane

After suffering their first defeat of the season in the Betway Premiership when they were stunned 1-0 by Polokwane City at Old Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi was left unimpressed by his side's performance.

Bulelani Nikani scored the match's only goal eight minutes from time to hand his side all three points which saw them move to fourth on the log table.

Mngqithi, who made 11 changes in the starting line-up as he continued to rotate his squad, was critical of his players' performance.

“I was not impressed with the speed of play. I was not impressed with our chance creation and our decision-making in the final third. It is an area that we must work hard on to try to get ourselves back because we thought we had improved tremendously in that regard,” Mngqithi told the media during the post-match press conference.

“And this is the team that played against [Golden] Arrows just the other day and scored five goals and if today [Sunday] they struggle even to have a shot on target, then we should be worried.”

The defeat for Sundowns handed an early advantage to Orlando Pirates who are the only team unbeaten in the league. Pirates have 15 points while Sundowns are second with 12 points after five matches.

Mngqithi said they didn't play the way they normally do as they struggled to get their rhythm throughout the match.

“I must say this was tough for the team, the first half they were strong. I must give it to them. We didn't do much even though we got into the final third several times,” he said.

“But we could not get a shot on goal because of those final decisions, those final mistakes. The ball getting lost from Tash [Tashreeq Matthews], Iqraam Rayners, [Siyabonga] Mabena and those situations will ultimately result in counterattacks which I think we dealt with well in the first half.

“Second half, I think we improved in that regard, but even though we improved we still had a lot of counterattacks against us. Our res-defence was questionable in some moments.

“I just think the speed of the game was very slow, we didn't play the way one would have loved us to play where we moved a ball a little bit faster and gave ourselves a chance to dominate the match.”

Sundowns will look for an immediate response when they host Cape Town City at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Wednesday before their Carling Knockout quarterfinal against Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium on Saturday.

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