Pereira tells Shanghai players to show their intelligence
BEIJING: Shanghai SIPG coach Vitor Pereira came under growing pressure after his expensivelyassembled team suffered their second damaging defeat in a week, with their season threatening to unravel fast.
“Show your intelligence!” blasted
Soccer News, urging the Portuguese to rotate his squad as players toil under the weight of two matches a week in the Chinese Super League, Asian Champions League and Chinese FA Cup.
On Wednesday, an SIPG team
boasting 60mil ( RM282mil) Brazilian signing Oscar lost 31 at Japan’s Kashima Antlers in the first leg of their last16 Champions League tie, four days after a 21 home defeat by Beijing Guoan in the Chinese Super League.
Pereira’s side still top the CSL on goal difference with a third of the season gone, but they have now failed to win in four games in all competitions and their blistering early season form has vanished.
Pereira, who replaced fellow Portuguese coach Andre VillasBoas in the close season, was particularly disappointed at the soft goals they conceded against Kashima, including two from corners and an own goal.
“We conceded too easily,” said the 49yearold, who led 1860 Munich to relegation from Germany’s second tier in his previous job.
“We conceded from two corner kicks, which is not normal. In the past we rarely made such mistakes on corner kicks and we need to correct these errors in the next match.” Pereira, whose side was missing
the injured 56mil (RM263mil) Brazilian striker Hulk, admitted that his players were “tired”.
“What we can do now is to keep moving forward and strive to do better,” he added.
His players need to pick themselves up quickly.
Tomorrow they travel to Guizhou Hengfeng – who are bottom of the CSL, but will be inspired by a promised win bonus of US$1.5mil (RM5.9mil) from their owner.
Then on Wednesday they host Kashima in the Champions League return leg in Shanghai, hoping to claw back a twogoal deficit to keep alive their hopes of a first Asian title.
Pereira’s appointment in December was greeted with a lukewarm response from Shanghai fans who had hoped for a bigger name to succeed former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager VillasBoas.