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Diego eyes victory against Emirates

Wasl have won only three of their last 10 games in the Etisalat Pro-League since the start of December, with two draws and five defeats tapering off the early-season optimism around the ambitious Cheetahs. However, with six more matches still remaining following their Ajman visit this weekend, Maradona hopes to secure a timely success and spark a belated resurgence in form for what remains of this 2011/12 term.

“This match will be a chance for us to get back on track. We need a win,” the Argentinian legend, 51, admitted.

“We know Emirates’ team quite well; we’ve studied them well and played against them too. The Emirates team hasn’t changed that much, but even if there were some changes to their team, we would be ready and prepared.

“Our focus is mainly now on working on the mentality of the players, rather than the physical and technical aspects, because we need to get them in the right mindset to get them back on track before the end of this season.”

Maradona does have a predominantly-fit playing personnel from which to choose his starting line-up and matchday squad overall, with only the odd player or two on the treatment table hampering his selection.

“We’re actually going through an excellent phase right now,” he explained. “We don’t suffer from a lot of injuries, only maybe Mubarak (Hassan), and we’re playing with a formation that can actually go out there and get the three points.”

Scoring a sufficient amount of goals nonetheless is Wasl’s Achilles heel, with the club having scored three goals in any single 90 minutes once in 15 league outings so far – a 3-0 opening-day triumph over Sharjah last October.

“We’re definitely working very hard with the players with regards to their finishing and converting the chances into goals,” Maradona added.

“It’s true we’ve missed so many chances recently — more than 10 chances in the last few games. We’re supporting the team and they’re working on it very thoroughly.

“We want to make sure that all of the players are ready and that they support each other. We don’t want to have a player that’s in a position whereby his team-mates will blame him for either missing out on a goal or losing a match.

“This is something that we’ve been working hard on ever since the exit from the Etisalat Cup.”

alex@khaleejtimes.com