Pitso Mosimane hits back at growing number of critics

Pitso Mosimane has hit back at the growing number of critics suggesting his Al Ahly side don’t live up to the standards of the iconic squads of the past.

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Al Ahly dominated African football under Portuguese coach Manuel Jose as they won five CAF Champions League titles under his guidance between 2005 and 2013.

And with Pitso Mosimane leading the Red Devils to a 2019/20 treble and bronze at the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup, comparisons to previous generations have arisen.

Perhaps unfairly so.

After Al Ahly’s perfect start to their CAF Champions League title defence with a 3-0 win against Sudanese side Al-Merrikh SC, Mosimane has offered a response to the sceptics.

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“A good start if we want to talk about defending the title. Three points out of three goals. We are happy with the result and the performance. The goals came late, but this is football,” he said in the post-match press conference.

“We must not forget that we are missing five key players, so we were late in scoring the first half, but we returned in the second half, and it is natural that some positions on the pitch will change due to the absences.”

Pitso Mosimane added: “No team in Egypt suffers from the run of fixtures like us. We played three [Club] World Cup matches, and we have two Super Cups, Egyptian and African.

“All things are going 100% as I want, and I will not talk about the league standings until we play the delayed games. Our league position will change.

“It is possible that we do not have good players on the individual skill level, but they write a history for them, you shouldn’t compare generations with each other, but compare the results.”

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Al Ahly face Tanzania Premier League champions Simba SC next Tuesday, 23 February (15:00 SA time) in their next CAF Champions League outing before returning to Cairo to face El Gaish in a league clash on Sunday, 28 February (19:30 SA time).

Al Ahly are currently second in the Egyptian Premier League, eight points behind leaders Zamalek. They have however played three fewer matches than their bitter rivals.

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