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Pitso Mosimane has explained that he pushed him to win early on at Al Ahly ‚and says that despite that, he still intended to impose his own style of play against the Egyptian giants and the newly crowned Caf Champions League champions. .
Mosimane said the fact that Ahly had finished the 2019-20 Egyptian Premier League when he arrived in early October with his predecessor Rene Weiler did not make life any easier as the former Mamelodi Sundowns manager was under immense scrutiny at every step he took. gave, and in the game. the juice.
The South African coach and coaches who led Ahly could not have asked for a better start than eight wins and a draw, including a 2-1 win over bitter Zamalek of Cairo in Friday’s Champions League final for the night. And Ahly can still score a hat-trick if they beat El Gaish in the Egyptian Cup final on Saturday.
“I’ve been in a whirlwind since I’ve been here,” Mosimane admitted at a digital press conference with the South African Association of Soccer Journalists on Thursday morning.
“You could say that it was probably easier for me because the league was already won‚ and there were only five games left. But this is not the case, because at this level, at this stage, the results are very important.
“And you could say that the team was already in the semifinals of the Champions League. It was, but to get there, I had to win all [league] games between the semifinals. And if you lose all of those, you know the story.
“Those league games were pressure games for me because everyone wanted to see, ‘Can we trust this guy? Who is this guy?
“The pressure is to keep winning. I had to start my own journey, and you start your journey by winning games and showing the difference and what you are contributing.
“So I changed the way we play, I changed the format, I changed the principles. I put my software. And to put your software, you have to get rid of the software that is inside.
“It’s like you’re cleaning the laptop, and putting in a whole new system, and you have to tell people how to apply that software, and teach them how to do it.
“So I put out what the league won, and everyone is like, ‘Why are you changing now?’ I said, ‘No’ because I need you to play differently, because the way you played to win the league I don’t think is the right way to win the Champions League. ‘
“I said, ‘Yeah, you can win the league that way’ because you already won the league anyway. But the Champions League is completely different. And we cannot follow the same path that you have been doing for the last seven years without winning the Champions League. ‘
“And when you do that, people just look at you to say ‘What is this guy doing now?’ So I said, ‘I’m bringing the way Sundowns plays’ and you said you liked the way Sundowns plays.’
“I said, ‘This is what I’m bringing to the table. You like me?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, we liked it.’
Mosimane has become the first black sub-Saharan African to coach the African Club of the 20th Century.
“And it’s a bit difficult because since 1907 you only replace the Europeans [as coaches]”Either the South Americans,” or the Egyptians, “he said.
“And that is also pressure. Pressure for Africa, for Africans to train Al Ahly, I mean Africans outside North Africa. And there is pressure to win the games. There are also pyramids [apart from Zamalek]”So it’s like Sundowns,” Pirates and Bosses.
“So you have to build on those games to show that you can win the Champions League. And you also have two cup rounds to reach the final.
“Thank God things have gone well, we haven’t lost a game so far. And he has not conceded many goals. And we have scored goals, just over two per game.
“But the most important thing is to change the way they play and make them enjoy their football. Because it usually turns into a fight or a fight.
“And you know the players have the right attitude in North Africa, they do. Unlike in South Africa, where you sometimes ask yourself, “What happened today? The team wasn’t there?”
“And they hit and have duels‚ and they are great here. … But we build for him [Champions League] final ‚through the two tough rounds of the semi-finals [against Wydad Casablanca]. And thank God we are where we are. “
Ahly extended her record to nine Champions League titles, and Friday night’s win was her first since defeating the Orlando Pirates in the 2013 final.
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