I am Held Liable for this Loss.. Šobić: We Did not Do Well to Win Al Dhafra
In the post-match press conference of the matchweek 15 against Al Dhafra, Croatia’s head coach of Al Ain FC, Željko Šobić with deep disappointment stated that he is the only one to be held liable for the shocking loss against Al Dhafra by 3-0. “We did not perform well as we are meant to do. We did not deserve to win the match and will not tackle the details in a press conference.”
On the apparent reasons behind losing the match to the home team, he stated two key ones. “When you play football, you should show your genuine and authentic fighting spirit. Also, when you lack the tools to deal with the conditions of the match with the mentality to win, you will never be able to achieve your goals. Definitely, this loss is very hard and shocking.”
Responding to a question on the Al Ain’s status in the competition, he said: “Losing any match is not good at all in our journey to defend our last season’s title, specially the difference between Al Ain and the leader of the standing table becomes 5 points instead of 2 points. However, we still have 11 matches and one of them against Al Sharjah. We have to be fully focused and make sure to improve the team’s results in the coming stages.”
On the poor performance of the team following winning Al Wahda, he said: “In the match against Al Wahda, we played with 10 players but we did show the squad’s authentic quality, aggressiveness and players were keen to win the match. Unfortunately, we did not show the level that could help us to win the match as I stated earlier.”
He commented on the reasons to replace Yahiya Nader after only 15 minutes of the kickoff whistle, he said: “In short, I explained to the player his tasks prior the start of the match but he did not fulfill my instructions in the right manner. This is why I was obliged to replace him so early.”
