Walter Zenga believes he must “restart” his work at Al Jazira as he looks to re-energise his side following back-to-back defeats.
Jazira’s gruelling schedule, that has seen them play eight times in little over a month, has finally caught up with them as Sunday night’s 3-1 home Arabian Gulf League loss to Al Ahli came just four days after Esteghlal left the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium with a 1-0 AFC Champions League win.
Zenga’s side have not tasted victory inside 90 minutes in any of their last six games and, with Thursday’s trip to Emirates followed in quick succession by a crunch ACL match at Al Rayyan and the Arabian Gulf Cup final against the Red Knights, he knows he must act quickly.
“This is very difficult now. I need to restart. I have some players now who are sad,” the Italian said. “I have been here for only five months and I found a club that needed to rebuild and to restart.
“We made a great effort to arrive where we arrived but now we are at an impasse, a total impasse, and we need to rewind and restart. This is my job and I must find a solution.”
Prior to their defeat to Esteghlal last week Jazira had lost only one game in their previous 17 in all competitions and Zenga is confident he can get his side firing once more.
“When I arrived here there was a problem and I resolved the problem. Now I have to concentrate on myself and try to resolve the problem,” he added.
Zenga also thinks his side could learn a thing or two from the side that beat them on Sunday, Ahli.
The Red Knights put themselves within a point of a sixth league title with their win in the capital and the Jazira boss said he hoped his team could learn to become as clinical as Cosmin Olaroiu’s men.
“A great team is a team that suffers during the first half, one [disallowed] goal, one post [hit], some more chances and then the first time they create something, goal,” Zenga said.
“This is a great team and we have to arrive in the same way. But Cosmin has arrived at a club that has continued to win for two years and has found a team that is ready and then he’s put his hand-print on it.”
