Asamoah Gyan has told his Al Ain team-mates to forget about their latest defeat to Al Ahli and concentrate on getting back to winning ways ahead of the President’s Cup final in May.
The Ghana striker scored a second-half penalty at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on Sunday night that proved to be in vain as the Red Knights secured a 3-2 win.
It was Ahli’s third success in three games against the Boss this season – albeit the first in the Super Cup came via a penalty shoot-out – and only served to strengthen their tag as favourites for the pair’s cup final clash on May 18.
Gyan, though, insists Al Ain are showing signs of improvement despite the setback.
“We wanted to win against Ahli,” said the striker, who has scored five goals in his last four games in all competitions for the Boss. “They’ve won all the three games this season but we are still hoping to come back strongly.
“Our game is improving, we started the league very slow and are out of the competition now and what we need to do is focus and win more games.
“We are waiting for the final and hope that it’s going to be a different game altogether.”
Sunday night’s game marked the return of former Al Ain coach Cosmin Olaroiu to the Garden City for the first time since his acrimonious departure last summer.
Al Ain have struggled this season, with Zlatko Dalic the third man to take control of the team since the Romanian left. But Gyan feels his team-mates need to concentrate on learning Dalic’s new methods and not worry about their former boss.
He said: “Cosmin is a great man, he did what he could in the last two years for Al Ain and we really, really appreciate that. He’s a great man, a smart coach but we have a new coach we are working with and we just have to listen to our coach and his new tactics.”
However, there was a hint that the Ghanaian is not fully at ease with the new regime. The 28-yearold admitted that “tactically things weren’t working for me personally” during a turgid first half for the hosts against their heated rivals.
“We are a team and we need to win more games,” he added. “If I score fine, definitely I’m happy because I’m a striker and I need to win but if I score and the team doesn’t win that’s another thing. I like to help my team to win every time, I don’t want to be a loser.”
