Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi believes his side didn’t play to their full potential against Chippa United on Tuesday.

The Brazilians were left frustrated after being forced to settle for a point following their goalless draw with Gavin Hunt’s side at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

Sundowns are now placed second in the league standings, level on four points with the Chilli Boys, who are top of the table after two games.

However, Mngqithi admits that his side missed talisman Themba Zwane during their stalemate with Chippa but feels the midfield could’ve done more to create space for Peter Shalulile up front.

“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,” Mngqithi told SuperSport TV post-game.

“When they killed 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 [with], 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 continued.

“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.”