Al-Ahli Saudi FC head coach Pitso Mosimane has admitted the condition of his side is poor and he had to shout at his players at half-time in their 2-1 victory against Najran SC on Tuesday night.
Mosimane’s side started on the wrong foot after conceding first and went into half-time one goal down. But in the second half, they come out gun blazing and overturned their deficit thanks to two penalties by Abdullah Al-Mogren.
Mosimane praised the character of his team in the second half, but says he had to give them a good talking to at half-time, while also questioning his new team’s physical state.
“When the team comes from 0-1 to 2-1 it shows that it has character,” he said after the match, as per KngsAFC.
“I was a little bit worried with them after the goal, my team went down but I had to shout at them at half-time and fight with them and ask them where is their pride.
“They play in front of their supporters, they must fight more and second half they gave a good fight.
“In my opinion, the condition of the team is not very good. I’m asking myself what did we do in pre-season?
“And I don’t have time to work on the physical side because we have game after game. I will try and get right when we have a break but they fought.”
When asked whether he would make new additions to the squad, Mosimane insisted he will work with the players he has on offer, even though he feels it is an inexperienced team.
“We will make sure that we get the body right but I don’t want to talk about any other player coming because I still have these players for the next match,” he added.
“And we still have more games to go. We have to have confidence in the team, but of course we need to strengthen the team.
“But it’s not only to strengthen the team. The team is very young team, is very inexperienced. They are young.
“We need to keep zero behind, two games we took two goals and if you look at this match, it was like the first match – the opponent made one chance or maybe two. Maybe that one Dida saved but the opponent don’t make too many chances against us but they score.
“So we need to focus a little bit I’m only eight days here and we got four points out of six, it’s not bad. I need time, I’ll get it right.”
The victory saw Al Ahli climb into fourth spot, while Najran fell to the bottom of the league.
