Al Ain coach Zoran Mamic has questioned the scheduling of this weekend’s Arabian Gulf League clash with Al Dhafra after 11 of his players only returned from international duty on Thursday.
The league and President’s Cup winners welcome Al Dhrafa to the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on Saturday with The Boss aiming to make it two wins out of two in the AGL.
But Mamic says he is not happy to have been given little time to work with his full squad for an “important” fixture.
“I am not happy to be preparing for a match the day after tomorrow where some of the international players only featured for 10 minutes and none some at all during the friendly games,” bemoaned the Croatian.
“I have not met all the players who went away on international duty but my job is to make them ready for our next game.”
Meanwhile, Al Jazira head coach Marcel Keizer has demanded an improvement from his players when they host Fujairah.
The Pride of Abu Dhabi were held to a 1-1 draw by Emirates Club in the Arabian Gulf Cup on Monday but Keizer wants a much better performance if they want to maintain their perfect start to the league.
“I am not satisfied about our performance in the last match against Emirates in the Arabian Gulf Cup, and I was disappointed because I believed we could win that game,” said the former Ajax head coach.
“We prepared very well and we started the game with our best 11, but things didn’t go well and we ended up with one point only. Now we demand from ourselves a better performance in the next match against Fujairah, and the three points from this match, because we want to get back on the right track as soon as we can.”
In the other game of the day, Shabab Al Ahli travel to Ajman with the visitors aiming to secure their first league win of the season after they were beaten 5-4 by Jazira in the opening round.
