Al Qadsia coach Mohammed Ebrahim believes Bani Yas are currently paying the price for years of instability in the dugout.
Ebrahim watched his side of part-timers rip their AFC Champions League opponents apart at times on Saturday night as they eased into the third qualifying round, and a date with El Jaish, thanks to a 4-0 win in Al Shamkha.
It proved a terrible start to life as Bani Yas boss for Iraqi coach Adnan Hamad, but Ebrahim thinks the problems in Abu Dhabi go far deeper than their most recent coaching change.
“They are a bigger team than us because of their budget, their stadium and they play professional football,” Ebrahim said. “Although they have many problems at the moment, I think the main problem Bani Yas has is that they have, in the last 10 years, changed too many coaches.”
Indeed, Hamad only took up the reins last Thursday following the sacking of Uruguayan tactician Jorge da Silva.
The Iraqi is Al Samawi’s seventh different coach since April 2011, while Salem Al Orafi has been put in temporary charge twice in that time, meaning the squad has had to experience eight coaching changes in that period.
That this revolving door of coaches has come at a time when the club has enjoyed a relative period of success – finishing second in the league in 2010-11, reaching the knockout stages of the AFC Champions League and final of the President’s Cup in 2012 and winning the 2013 GCC Champions League – is quite remarkable.
Of the eight asked to take charge of the club since the summer of 2008, only Lofti El Benzarti has seen out a full season.
Hamad conceded after Saturday’s defeat that he needed to improve his new side’s fitness and give them a boost in confidence, following three defeats in quick succession, if he is going to improve on that record.
“We need to work very hard on fitness. The fitness is not good; we now have 12 days to work on that and the psychology of the players,” Hamad said.
“Psychology is very important in sport and football. Especially when your team loses two or three games.
“We need to work hard, all of us need to work very hard but we have 12 days and that should be enough time to work on that.”
Time might be on Bani Yas’ side, but things may well get tougher before they get better as their next league assignment, on February 20, is a trip to Dubai to face table-toppers Al Ahli.
Qadsia on the other hand have less than a week to prepare for their Champions League clash with El Jaish, with a group stage place on the line.
The winner of that game will go into Group B alongside Al Fateh, Foolad and Bunyodkor but Ebrahim believes playing against professional sides brings the best out of his side.
The Kuwaiti coach said: “In 2006, we played Al Ain [in the ACL quarter- finals], who were UAE champions at the time, and we won 3-0. So it is not normal for our players that they double their efforts, and give extra effort to win.”
REVOLVING DOOR: BANI YAS COACHES SINCE 2008
Lotfi El Benzarti
Jun ‘08-April ‘11 (Sacked)
Mahdi Ali
Apr ‘11-Jun ‘11 (Caretaker)
Jorvan Vieira
July ‘11-Oct ‘11 (Sacked)
Salem Al Orafi
Oct ‘11-Nov ‘11 (Caretaker)
Gabriel Calderon
Nov ‘11-May ‘12 (Sacked)
Jozef Chovanec
June ‘12-Apr ‘13 (Upstairs)
Salem Al Orafi
Apr ‘13-Jun ‘13 (Caretaker)
Jorge Da Silva
Jun ‘13-Feb’ 14 (Sacked)
Adnan Hamad
Feb ‘14-present
