Pitso Mosiname has admitted that he may have underestimated the scale of the job he has at Iranian club Esteghlal following their poor display on Thursday when they suffered a loss.
The nine-time Iranian champions lost their third straight match, the second in as many games under Mosimane, following a 2-0 defeat to league leaders Tractor on Thursday.
While he saw some positives, it is the manner in which his team surrendered that has left the former Mamelodi Sundowns coach disappointed, and he feels it will not be as easy as he might have thought while he is already calling for new signings to improve the squad.
Pitso surprised by nature of rebuilding job in Iran
“I never thought it was as it is now of course, I knew they were struggling but not like this. But somebody must come here and it’s me. So, you can’t run away but we know why we are where we are,” a disappointed Mosimane said after the match.
“You can see we need more business; we need to bring [in] players to help. It is so simple in football, to stop the goal from coming in at the back and you need to score, very simple.”
Reflecting on the defeat, Mosimane rued individual mistakes from his team while blaming them for not finishing off the few chances they had.
“The results are not helping us I know it can sound a little bit crazy but it is the way I see football. I think we are improving to play, we played better today [Thursday] than the last match but this is not helping us if we don’t win,” added the ex-Al Ahly coach, who suffered a 3-1 loss to Kheybar Khorramabad in his first match in charge last weekend.
Will Mosimane’s team stop a Neymar-led Al-Hilal?
“Because at the end of the day, football is about results. We played a very good, disciplined team but we played well also. We did not take our two or three chances but we must take them otherwise they don’t mean anything. But we suffered from individual mistakes which is very painful.”
Mosimane, who also had stints with Al Ahli Jeddah and Abha of Saudi Arabia as well as Al Wehda of the United Arab Emirates, joined the two-time Asian champions last month in a bid to revive their fortunes.
He has a big job on his hands with the club in 12th position in the 16-team league on eight points from nine matches after five defeats, two wins and as many draws.
It does not get any better for Mosimane and his team as their next game is an Asian Champions League tie against Saudi giants Al-Hilal, home to Brazilian superstar Neymar, who are flying both at home and on the continent, having won all their matches this season.
