Mngqithi: Us as coaches must take responsibility

Manqoba Mngqithi

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi says the coaching team must take the blame for their CAF Champions League exit.

Sundowns drew 1-1 in a quarterfinal second-leg clash against Petro de Luanda in Pretoria on Saturday after losing the first leg 2-1 in the Angolan capital a week earlier, which meant they lost 3-2 on aggregate and have now been eliminated from the tournament at the quarterfinal stage for the third consecutive season.

The Brazilians have completely dominated the DStv Premiership in recent seasons and despite boasting an array of talent the CAF Champions League is the one crown that eludes them despite coming into the tournament season after season as favourites.

And Mngqithi believes at the end of the da it is the technical staff who must take responsibility.

“Probably it’s us the leadership that will have to take the bullet and say maybe we need to plan better and do better in the next matches to make sure that we improve in this [Champions League] space because seemingly we’re not achieving our ultimate goal [of lifting the Champions League],” said Mngqithi.

“Based on the investments the club have put in, we must take the blame that we didn’t take the team to the next stage. We must also be fully aware that we were unfortunate not to have some of our investments [referring to players they spend a lot of money on] for this critical matches… Rivaldo [Coetzee] was a very big loss, Saavedra as well and George [Maluleka] when he was really coming in and showing very good signs, again he was another big loss when we lost him to injury before the first leg.”

https://bit.ly/3pEaOH5