Cosmin Olaroiu talks Al Ahli fortunes

Cosmin Olaroiu, manager of Arabian Gulf League leading Al Ahli, talks to our John McAuley about future plans and the remainder of the AGL season.

On today's opponents Al Wasl, whom Ahli beat 4-1 in the League Cup in October:

“Al Wasl have got better. They are not the same team we played against in the League Cup. They have improved, are better now so we need to focus and to get back on track and to keep winning. Don’t forget when they lost the last game [6-1 to Al Nasr] they played almost all the match with 10 players. So we can’t judge the team from one match only.”

On Chilean midfielder Luis Jimenez's supposed loss of form:

“People look at players and they judge them by entertainment, if the player has [provided] some entertainment in the game. They judge them depending on that, but we have strategies and plans we give the individual players. So we judge the players depending on tactics that we need.”

On last week's Asian Champions League draw:

“It’s a difficult group we’re in [Al Sadd of Qatar, Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia and Iran’s Sepahan], but I’m glad to play against two teams I’ve coached before ... But they have put us in a very difficult group. They only forgot to put Barcelona and PSG in our group.”

On this season's fixture list:

“The first two games in the ACL [in March] we have league games in between and then we’ll lose players to the national team and we’ll have a League Cup game. The period between the games is better than last season, but it’s not the best.”

On dropping two points to Al Jazira last week:

"Last game against Jazira [a 2-2 home draw] the players were focused ... There was a referee mistake and there was a mistake from us also that cost us the draw."