With Pitso Mosimane having suffered defeats in all of his first three games in charge, a former Esteghlal star has given an honest assessment of the manager's time at the club so far.
The South African officially took charge of the side last month, and is still searching for his first victory as he aims to turn the side's fortunes around.
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Since his appointment, the Capital Blues have suffered defeats to Kheybar Khorramabad and Tractor SC in Persian Gulf Pro League encounters before suffering a 3-0 loss to Al Hilal in the AFC Champions League.
With the club sitting in 14th position on the domestic league table, former player Behtash Fariba admitted that while things may seem bleak, there has been a notable change since the former Al Ahly boss was brought in.
"Mosimane has reached a team that has a lot of injured and young players, but from the technical conditions, you can see the improvement in Esteghlal compared to the first game against Khyber to Al Hilal," the 69-year-old said per Footballi.
"Anyway, Al Hilal was a team that has not experienced a loss in 65 games in the Saudi League, and this shows the strength of this team with those quality and expensive players.
"However, we still had scoring and shooting opportunities in that match."
When asked whether an Iranian team could win the could win the AFC CL, Fariba explained why this would be out of the question.
"We should no longer dream that we can become champions of Asia," he added.
"When the representatives of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates spend such a lot of money on their teams and acquire expensive players, we should think about the Premier League and think about making up for this gap to the top of the table.
"We have had a history of returning and compensating this difference in the past."
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Mosimane and his charges will have the opportunity to try and claw their way back up the table when they take on Mes Rafsanjan FC, who have just one win in their last five matches, on Saturday.
By Junaid Benjamin
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