Al Duhail Head Coach Christophe Galtier described the team’s match against Al Shamal next Saturday evening as important, and the coach said in his first conference for the Expo Stars League, which was held yesterday evening in the club’s press conference hall: A very important match awaits us, and the importance of the match comes from the fact that the team lost a number of points in the previous rounds, and our ambition is reaching the top.
The coach added: After the end of our match versus Al Nasr, I told the team players that the team must return to victories again with spirit and seriousness, and although travel and our match versus Al Nasr will affect the players, we worked hard to prepare them physically and technically.
Commenting on the team’s defeat in the AFC Champions League to Al Nasr, the coach said: He is satisfied with the players’ performance in the last match. We had many opportunities to score and we lost due to the individual skills of Al Nasr players. When I watched the recording of the match, I found that the players performed what was required of them, and the physical and technical performance was good, even though they played under pressure, but unfortunately we lost the confrontation.
Commenting on assuming his duties after the start of the season, Galtier said: When the coach comes after the start of the season, he needs time to study and analyze, but I took over my job and had a prior idea about the team and immediately began working to address everything that I observed and we are working to implement the team’s technical strategy.
The coach continued: My focus now is on the players who are present, and I know that there are influential absences, but the performance of players like Al Moez and Ismail can cover those absences, and every coach hopes that all his players will be fully prepared, but this is the state of football.
The coach stated: Since I assumed my duties, we have been working hard in training in order to make the players’ performance improve day after day, and the most important thing for me is the confidence of the players. I want to see my team playing beautiful football, and this is the shortcut for the team to return to the right track. Therefore, the players’ performance must be good, whether in training or matches.
At the end, Galtier concluded: I took over my job at a difficult time. We were missing international players and there was not enough time to work with everyone. After our match in the Ooredoo Cup, I asked for a friendly match in order to see the full squad, which gave me the complete idea that I wanted and made me develop a strategy for our previous match, and now the Asian round has ended, and I want to see the reaction of the players in the league, and because we are a big team, we must play every match seriously.
