Zoran content with his good start at Al Ain
Al Ain’s new Croatian manager Zoran Mamić started his first post-match press conference by congratulating his men and fans on 3-0 win over Al Nasr believing it enhances Al Ain’s competitive position; “The first 20 minutes were difficult as our rivals made several attempts at our goal, but we managed to reverse the course and control the proceedings ending the game in our favor after we scored 3 goals,” he commented.
“In 2nd half,” he continued, “my men reduced the space in which Al Nasr’s Abdulaziz Barrada moved as Berman managed to neutralize his threat. In general, I’m happy with my squad’s performance.”
To Zoran, Al Ain’s future hopes were not enhanced by tonight’s win only but with the near return of Mohannad, Bandar and Asprilla who were kept off by their injuries.
Zoran unveiled that he had watched many videos for Al Ain in one day to identify and figure out proper solutions to Al Ain’s issues; “I’m sure we’ll solve all these issues in the coming training sessions to make things better,” he said.
“I think,” he continued “those quick corrections were reflected in today’s win; it’s a good start for me with Al Ain. We’ll enhance it by mutual confidence between the coaching staff and the players hoping our performance will get much better in near future to achieve our goals.”
Evaluating his rivals of Al Nasr, Zoran said that he had watched their encounter with Al Ain in the President’s Cup quarterfinals in addition to other games in the current AGL competition to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Explaining his tactics in today’s match, Zoran said: “I don’t differentiate between young and old players. I trusted the young player Salem Al Azizi to take part in today’s game after I had seen playing as a center-back in one training session; I tried him in the right-back position and he did well. Hopefully, trusting him will motivate him and all young players. Dawood fared well too today, but I withdrew him along with Omar Abdurrahman and Nasser Al Shamrani taking into consideration our greater challenges in future.”
Given Al Ain’s current situation of being 7 points adrift of the table leader, Zoran believes that Al Ain’s chances to compete for AGL title will not be determined by himself alone but by the team as a whole; “Al Ain can do it since it possesses great capabilities, self-confidence, determination and defiance. My assignment is to improve the team’s performance. If we want to win the title, we have to win all our coming games.” He concluded.
