Football: Dalic fumes over players missing pre-season camp

New arrival Caio Fernandes trains with teammates during the pre-season camp at the Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium.

Al Ain face a challenging season both in Asia and at home and head coach Zlatko Dalic believes his galaxy of stars can help the club put up an impressive show. He, however, fumed at eight of his players missing Al Ain's preparatory camp in the Garden City as they are training with the national team in Spain for the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
"In the absence of eight important players it's not easy for any coach to prepare for a new season filled with significant challenges," Dalic said in a tweet through club's official twitter handle. Al Ain are eyeing Arabian Gulf League and AFC Champions League glory.
"We will be better team than last season but face problems while preparing 20 days without our key players," he said on his return from short vacation. The Croatian joined the training session on Saturday.
Al Ain's pre-season camp is clashing with the national team's preparatory tour. Al Ain and the UAE Football Association had held a series of meeting to resolve this issue. The national team camp runs from July 10 to August 10 and Al Ain session runs from July 15 to August 15.
After the meetings, it was decided that Al Ain players will end their Spanish exercise by August 1 and join the 'Garden City' club. Still, the eight players will miss more than 18 days of Al Ain camp and Dalic sees this hurting his strategies. His discontentment stems from the fact that the pre-season camp was also meant to serve as a platform for the new signings to gel with the old hands.
The eight players training in Spain are Khalid Issa, Omar Abdurrahman, Mohamed Fawzi, Mohannad Salem Al Enezi, Mohamed Abdurrahman, Ismail Ahmad, Mohamed Ahmad and Amer Abdurrahman - the last name a new arrival.
Dalic, however, went on to add that for the club the national interest 'is above all'.
On his new signings - UAE midfielder Amer Abdulrahman and Japanese League star Caio Fernandes, he said: "We needed a fast player like Caio on the left flank to strike a balance with Danilo Asprilla on the right. Amer has great potential and had good international exposure."
The Croatian hopes the new signings will quickly integrate with the team and help Al Ain become a stronger unit. He also expects a bigger attendance from fans than the previous season.
Al Ain have started the pre-season phase jointly with the club's U-21 team. And Dalic seems to have run into some gifted legs. "I will not hesitate in giving them the opportunity to prove their existence because they have good potential," he added.
Al Ain will play Lokomotiv Tashkent in the AFC Champions League quarters at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on August 23 and head to Uzbekistan for the return leg on September 13.