Dubai: Al Wasl coach Bruno Metsu is asking for animal instinct from his players heading into Thursday’s league match with Al Ahli, knowing that he’s lost his biggest predator to the opposition.

Goalkeeper Majed Nasser joined Al Ahli midweek on a free transfer, bypassing an internal season’s ban from Al Wasl for headbutting an opponent. A 17-match UAE FA suspension for slapping his coach, Quique Sanchez Flores last season still stands however.

Unavailable until November, having served 11 of his 17-match ban, Nasser won’t feature at Zabeel Stadium from 8.15pm today, but Metsu hasn’t ruled out a psychological disadvantage of losing Nasser to their city rivals heading into this Dubai derby.

All of Nasser’s acts of aggression were under former Al Wasl coach Diego Maradona — apart from earlier rock and chair throwing incidents and a separate attack on a linesman — but new coach Metsu certainly hasn’t condoned the fury.

“I consider Majed Nasser to not only be the best keeper in the UAE, but the best in the GCC and probably one of the best in Asia,” said Metsu. “It’s [Nasser’s transfer] good news for Al Ahli, but bad news for me as a coach.”

“Majed was not happy if he took one point out of a game,” added Metsu. “He’d fight if he wasn’t happy, because he likes to win. I like that mentality because you shouldn’t be satisfied with a point. For me it’s important to win.”

“I heard Jose Mourinho saying he wants his players to play like animals. And that’s the same as me. In fact I think Mourinho copied that idea from me,” joked Metsu. “We still play for something [against Al Ahli despite the loss of Nasser] and that’s to keep first position. It’s a better position than Al Ahli are in today [sixth].”

“In the last match [against Al Nasr 2-2] we made mistakes that cost us dear and we paid the price in cash. Two goals came from set-pieces where we fell asleep and that was unacceptable – we’ve worked to ensure it won’t happen again.

“Up front we missed opportunities but what’s important is that we made those chances in the first place. We should forget about the last game and continue with the same spirit knowing that being top of the table is only important at the end of the season,” said Metsu.

FIXTURES

Thursday October 4th

Dubai – Bani Yas, 5.10pm

Kalba – Al Wahda, 5.05pm

Al Wasl – Al Ahli, 8.15pm

Friday October 5th

Al Ain – Al Dhafra, 5.10pm

Al Shaab – Dibba Fujairah, 5.10pm

Al Jazira – Ajman, 8.15pm

Al Shabab – Al Nasr, 8.15pm

LEAGUE TABLE

P W D L F A D Pts

Al Wasl 2 1 1 0 6 3 3 4

Al Nasr 2 1 1 0 4 3 1 4

Dubai 2 1 1 0 3 2 1 4

Al Dhafra 2 1 1 0 3 2 1 4

Al Shaab 2 1 0 1 6 3 3 3

Al Ahli 2 1 0 1 6 5 1 3

Al Jazira 2 1 0 1 3 2 1 3

Al Shabab 2 1 0 1 2 1 1 3

Al Ain 2 1 0 1 7 7 0 3

Bani Yas 2 1 0 1 2 2 0 3

Al Wahda 2 1 0 1 2 4 -2 3

Dibba 2 0 1 1 1 2 -1 1

Ajman 2 0 1 1 2 5 -3 1

Kalba 2 0 0 2 0 6 -6 0