According to Varzesh3, the Persepolis football team, in the tenth week of the Premier League lost by one goal to Foolad to experience its second defeat of the season. Mehdi Tartar, Persepolis's head coach, attended the press conference after the match and spoke about his team's performance. He apologized to the Persepolis fans for this defeat and stressed that the entire responsibility for the loss lies with him and his technical staff.
Read Tartar's remarks below:
* Opening remarks?
I must apologize to our fans. We are truly ashamed before them. On a day when Foolad had no chances, we lost the game. We were caught by surprise on a counterattack, and we had worked on this issue too. In some games where the opposing team's only goal is to destroy the team facing them, the attacking team does not get many chances. We did not have many opportunities today, but we had one exceptional chance that our striker missed. That chance was a much easier chance than Foolad's chance, but our lads tried hard and put in the effort. Just as in wins I tell the players they must not become arrogant, now in defeat too I take the responsibility. The ones responsible for this loss are me and the technical staff. The players must forget this loss very soon, because our goal is the championship and we must prepare for the next match.
* The strikers missing chances and the failure against Foolad's defensive line?
Add Khodabandehlou's injury and the bad luck that occurred to this game. Before the match we were also faced with Urunov's injury. In games that get tied up, there are certain players who must be the knot-openers. This week we were unlucky, but that is no excuse. We must win the game and perform strongly at home against all teams. Instead of four chances, we must create seven chances so we can score. As I said, the responsibility for the loss is mine, and we must fix the problems, analyze and work more, so that against these teams whose only goal is to destroy the attacking team's game we also have tactical variety.
* Foolad's good analysis and Persepolis's limited tactical variety?
As I said, we must work more, but in any case there must be a few creative players so we can open the knots. We were unlucky and missed several players, but that is no excuse and we must perform better so we are not caught off guard against these teams. Our question is why we should have conceded that goal, because Foolad had no attacks and Payam Niazmand did not have a single save. Foolad beat us without attacking, and I congratulate them, but we must not concede goals. Our problem was that we conceded a goal; otherwise, even with a draw we could have had better conditions and even scored late in the game. When a team scores against Persepolis, naturally its morale rises a lot and it can pursue the game better.
* The players' silence after the loss, and the head coach accepting full responsibility for the defeat?
This is the job of us coaches. The responsibility for a loss is ours. A win belongs to everyone and everyone should enjoy it, but a loss belongs to us coaches. If we do not take it on our necks, we have erred. We must recover and prepare very soon. As it stands, we are still at the top of the table. We must learn from these mistakes we made and forget them. Wins are only for 24 hours, and the loss is from here on; we should not grieve over the loss even for 24 hours, because we have a hard year ahead. It is very long and grueling, and we must not fall apart and lose our vitality over one loss.
* The harsh reaction of some fans?
We must not lose our unity, because we really are a good team. Just today, when we lost, we had given Foolad no scoring chances. So I ask the fans to be patient. I am not talking about myself, but they should support the team and the players. These lads did not fall short. After all, in some matches it happens, and losing is also a part of football. We just have to learn from our losses. The incident must not happen again. If such a thing happens again, it is a great flaw — to be bitten twice from the same hole. So we must learn from these mistakes and forget them, both the technical staff and the players. Nothing gets fixed by grieving and staying in this loss. I also apologized to the fans — we are truly ashamed before them — but I say again: unity can help our team a great deal.
* The reason for substituting Hossein Kanaani?
Hossein was injured and had been away from the team for nearly a month; his physical condition dropped late in the match and we were forced to substitute him so he would not get hurt. I don't think he has been injured.
Source: Varzesh3
