Dubai: Al Nasr coach Ivan Jovanovic vowed to treat every competition the same after beating Al Jazira 1-0 at home in their opening group game of the Arabian Gulf Cup on Thursday.
The Blue Wave fielded a full-strength side against an Al Jazira reserve team, but they only managed to break the visitors down after the hour, when Ivan Trickovski headed in from Fahad Hadid’s cross.
Most clubs use the Arabian Gulf Cup to blood new talent, but Jovanovic said Al Nasr would continue to fight across all formats this season.
“We will try to have the best team available in every game, not just this cup but the President’s Cup and the Arabian Gulf League,” he said. “As a coach I don’t believe we have to pick and choose targets, we have to show our best performances and have the best team ready for every game.
“Every team has their own ideas on how to play each competition, but we will do our best in every tournament.
“It’s not an easy task for some teams who have a lot of national team players in their squad, because this cup clashes with national team matches, but the beauty of this competition is that, if you have your best players available, you can field them.”
Of the game, Jovanovic added: “We controlled the pace but we just couldn’t create. In the second half we were able to open them up and convert. In general I believe the result was fair.”
Al Jazira coach Eric Gerets, meanwhile, openly admitted his side’s priorities lay elsewhere.
“The priority is the Arabian Gulf League and President’s Cup,” he said. “We’re still in this cup so we will take it seriously. We wanted to have a good result today and we did well, we just weren’t able to get the point.
“It was an important chance for me to see new players. Every player should have their chance to play and it’s only when everyone plays that I will learn more and get a better opinion of the team as a whole.
“I could have played the foreign players from the start, but I think it’s only logical to give other players a chance.”
