Shabab's Midas touch missing in last six

Dubai - Al Shabab coach Paulo Bonamigo was left to rue the loss of Chilean midfielder Carlos Villaneuva in an end of season slump that saw his side win just one of their last six matches.

Finishing third in the league and surrendering their Etisalat Cup crown to bitter Ghusais rivals Al Ahli last week, Shabab's downfall, despite winning the GCC Champions League earlier in the campaign, echoed last season's late topple down the rankings to fifth.

Bonamigo attributed this latest demise to the absence of Villaneuva who suffered a cruciate ligament injury against Al Wasl six matches before the end of the season, exactly at the point Shabab's form took a tumble.

Bonamigo said: "The absence of Carlos forced us to change our style of play. The characteristic of Carlos is to control and supply good passes. We identify him as the playmaker in the team, he's very creative.

"But after Carlos' injury we had to change and adapt to another way of playing. With his absence we are giving the same effort but we miss that last pass, what we call the magic pass or touch.

"He gave a lot of creativity in matches so without him the team has had to become more dynamic and competitive but without our magic player our characteristic has changed."

Bonamigo added: "We are already planning next season to correct these problems especially after losing Carlos. We need to bring in players with similar characteristics to make up for these missing players - we cannot have a repeat of this next season.

"The aim is to bring experience to the club to find balance. We're observing future talents but we cant only depend on future promise we need to combine this with experience to find a good balance to become more consistent."