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By Sibongiseni Gumbi

Football Writer


Reinforced striking department gives Mngqithi hope for more goals at Sundowns

Mamelodi Sundowns coach, Manqoba Mngqithi believes the team could have been more lethal in the past season's had they been incisive upfront, and converted all the chances they created. 


The Brazilians recently brought in the big guns in attack with the signings of Kermit Erasmus, Gift Mothupa and last season’s joint-top goalscorer, Peter Shalulile.
Shalulile and Erasmus have hit the ground running with the duo scoring a goal each in their opening DStv Premiership match where they beat Kaizer Chiefs 3-0 at FNB Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Shalulile opened the scoring with a well-taken header and Erasmus scored with a well-executed shot that Itumeleng Khune could only watch as it sailed past him into an empty net. Themba Zwane scores the third goal from the penalty spot.
“Over the past three seasons, we have not been scoring enough goals. We’ve been creating a lot of opportunities, by not converting them to goals,” said Mngqithi in a post-match media interview. He said their goal scoring ratio is something they have been working hard to try and improve.
“We’ve been working hard to improve those statistics but they have not really been coming up. We were just fortunate that our defence has been solid.
‘And now with Kermit, Motupa, Affonso, and Shalulile, we should hope for a little bit better in terms of the numbers that we can collect from them. it’s encouraging that both of them (Shalulile and Erasmus) managed to score in the first league game,” said the former Golden Arrows mentor.

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