Hasan Bashir, the Denmark-based captain and seasoned striker of the Pakistan football team has said that his team needs to improve its goal-scoring capabilities to win matches.
“As a striker, I think we should focus on the attacking side because we have only scored one goal in the last six games and I think that is embarrassing in my opinion,” Hasan told the publication in an interview.
“I expect a lot from myself. I know when I came into the team we had that goal scoring problem in 2012 and 2013,” said Hasan, who plays for Turnby FF, which plays in the Denmark Series, Denmark’s fourth-tier football league system.
“When I joined Muhammad Ali and the other part of the attack, with Kalimullah and Saddam Hussein, we started scoring goals. You know what we’ve done before.”
“If you ask me, I think the biggest disappointment was our offensive in the last six games against Mauritius and India,” the football captain said.
“We should have scored more goals but against some teams we didn’t have the quality,” he added.
“We were unlucky in some games. I should have scored against Djibouti, we should have scored against Nepal, we had a big chance against Nepal; we had a big chance against Kuwait.”
“I made some mistakes, the defenders made some mistakes, the midfielders made some mistakes, the coach made some mistakes and the goalkeepers also made some mistakes. You know we are a team and we cannot blame any particular player for anything,” he said.
Hasan defended both Yusuf Butt and Shakib Hanif when asked about the failure of the goalkeepers in the four-nation series in Mauritius and the SAFF Cup in India.
“I disagree on the football part because both Yusuf Butt and Saqib Hanif have been part of the team for the last ten years and are the most experienced players.”
“I think goalkeepers have a very difficult job, sometimes a very unfortunate job, they can have an amazing match and then they have a bad action and the media, fans and people talk,” he said.
Hasan said, “I am very happy with the goalkeepers because I have been with them for the last ten years. They have saved us many times in the past and they will do it again in the future.”
Hasan said the biggest lack of experience in the last six matches.
“I think our biggest lack of experience was in those six matches. I had some messages sent to me from journalists who told me that Nepal was a team that was mostly at our level.”
“They had about 600 international caps in their squad and we had 150 and about half of that was me, Yusuf Butt and Shakib Hanif. So it was very clear that we were going to be in trouble.”
“Also I hope all the players in the squad especially those who play in Pakistan get some game time at the club level because I know the problems in Pakistan football,” he said.
“I think it’s a very big point in the past that our players who play in Pakistan don’t have game time and they are great quality players, good players, very talented but game time, match experience which is very important.”
“We lack that. That’s the big problem in my opinion. I hope they can play good club-level football in the Pakistan Premier League like they did in the past.”
“The PFF is also working on getting some players from abroad to play for Pakistan and inshallah I hope they will also make it to the squad and improve the standard,” said Hasan.
Hasan said it was wrong to expect Pakistan to win the recent tours of Mauritius and India.
“First of all I don’t think we failed because you only fail when you have expectations. And to be honest, if the media, the fans and everyone expected us to win then I think the expectations were wrong,” he said.
“I’ve been with the team for a long time and I speak from experience. You can’t stop football and then suddenly start again, you collect some players and then we hope that we win against better level countries.”
“I don’t think we failed badly but of course we lost. All the players in the team are winners. I don’t think we failed at our level, our quality, the quality of the opponents,” he explained.
“I think we need consistency. We have some matches in September. We hope to play them similarly. Of course we need consistency and it depends on our luck.”
“As far as the World Cup qualifiers are concerned I hope we draw with a team of our level. We can beat them inshallah. But honestly as far as I know Pakistan’s luck is very unlucky for us as we have drawn against the toughest team in my opinion but hope for a good draw for the World Cup qualifiers and continuity in the group,” he said.
Hasan rubbished the notion that the team did not go ahead with any international assignments due to the late joining of foreign-based players.
Hasan hoped a good draw would enable them to make an impression in the World Cup qualifiers this October.
“We have to play as many matches as we can. There’s only one window and two matches in September, and that’s the most we can play and I hope we play them.”
