Will September determine Crespo’s future at Al Ain?

For the first time in its modern history, Al Ain will face four different challenges in September, including two decisive knockout matches, which will put the “Boss” under pressure, especially its Argentine coach, Hernan Crespo, whose popularity has declined significantly after the team’s 3-3 draw in the ADNOC Professional League against Al Bataeh, which caused a state of discontent among the “Violet” fans on the “X” application, who were surprised by the players’ decline in performance after taking a three-goal lead after only 16 minutes, and the coach’s inability to manage the situation.

Despite the uncertainty among fans regarding the team’s coach, Crespo, what may increase the “Violet” team’s chances of achieving “full marks” this month is that the four challenges will be held at its home stadium, which will spare it the fatigue of travel, and the players will also have the support of their large fan base, which has remained the most prominent strength in all areas.

The “Boss’” mission will begin next Saturday, September 7, by hosting Kalba in the second leg of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Cup, a match that the team made difficult for itself, as it had led 3-0 in the first leg after 66 minutes, but its net later received two goals, and as a result it came out with a booby-trapped victory with a score of 3-2.

In addition to the first leg result, the team will lose 9 of its main players during the match, after goalkeeper Khaled Issa, Khaled Al-Hashemi, Kwame Otoi, Yahya Nader, and Mohamed Abbas joined the national team, and Soufiane Rahimi was called up to the Moroccan national team, Laba Kodjo to Togo, Alejandro Kaku to Paraguay, and Park Young to South Korea, which will be a real test of the strength of the substitutes’ bench.

The team will have a 9-day rest before starting its journey in the AFC Champions League for the elite, when it hosts its guest, Al Sadd of Qatar, on the 16th of this month, in the tournament that it enters as the title holder of the last tournament before the updates that occurred to it, and it has no choice but to win only, if it wants to confirm its readiness to defend its title, especially since the journey will be difficult for it.

While the ADNOC Pro League teams will play the third round matches, the Al Ain match against Kalba has been postponed to allow them the opportunity to prepare for the match against Auckland City of New Zealand on the 22nd of this month, in the opening of their journey in the Intercontinental Cup, which is the tournament being held for the first time, and is organised by the International Federation “FIFA”.

The team’s fourth match in September will not be any easier than the previous one, as “Al Zaeem” will face a tough challenge in the ADNOC Professional League Championship on the 26th against its guest, Al Wasl, “the title holder”. The match will be a real test to measure the “Violet” team’s ability to compete for the championship title.

Jawhar: Crespo was a great player but as a coach he was technically poor

Al Ain legend and former captain Salem Johar, who lifted the AFC Champions League title in 2003, said that the team’s current coach, Argentine Hernan Crespo, was a great player in his professional career, but he is considered a poor coach technically, stressing that the four matches awaiting “the Boss” in the current month of September could largely determine its fate, pointing out that Crespo’s results with his former club, Al Duhail of Qatar, witnessed heavy losses, including a 0-7 defeat against Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia.

“Not every successful player on the pitch can become a good coach,” Jawhar told Emarat Al Youm. “It can be said that he was lucky to win the AFC Champions League, and that only three matches were the reason for that, specifically against Al Nassr, Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia and Yokohama of Japan at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium. But we must not forget what he presented in the league championship because the performance was unacceptable.”

He attributed the difficulty of the matches against Al Ain to the desire of the competitors to win against them, as they are the Asian champions. He said: “Winning against the Asian champions is a morale boost for the competitors. There is also another aspect related to the substitutes’ bench that coach Crespo has. Is it able to replace the main players when they are absent? Does it have the ability to provide a ready alternative in case of resorting to the rotation policy?”