Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane says his players were not themselves against Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday afternoon.
Amakhosi came into the match oozing with confidence after thrashing Maritzburg United 3-0 on Tuesday, but they were thumped 4-0 by Masandawana in Pretoria.
It is Chiefs’ heaviest defeat in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) era which started in 1996 and Zwane was left disappointed by his charges’ performance.
“Yeah, look we were nowhere near in terms of performing today. I think the boys looked flat. They didn’t come to the party,” Zwane told SuperSport TV.
“We were just not ourselves. You look at it from the first goal, it was a manna from heaven for them and I think from there we lost it. We were not ourselves. I think we played about actually the entire first half . . . we couldn’t have a shot on target.
“It wasn’t to be in terms of performance. All the entire middle field-they were flat you know they couldn’t move, they couldn’t keep the ball, they couldn’t defend and at some point the defence was bound to crack.”
The 48-year-old tactician was disappointed to see his charges give Peter Shalulile space in their box and the Sundowns hitman scored twice to hand the PSL champions a well-deserved win.
“Though, also when you look at the ball that led to the penalty the player was loose and we said Shalulile, once you give him that space in the 18-area, he is going to punish you. So, I think once we went to halftime two goals down, we could see that we were not ourselves,” he added.
“Then, second half I think about 10 -15 minutes I thought we were back into the game and we started controlling the game a little bit and you could see they were waiting for that moment where they can connect with Shalulile you know.
“But still we did not create chances that we could say were better for us to keep us in the game or to put them under pressure and then we conceded a third goal and then from there again . . . you know we play in patches.
“You know, in fact we were not ourselves and we got a penalty. Even actually, had we scored that penalty I don’t think we would’ve come back. We were just flat.”