Endo weighed down by Gamba struggles

Gamba Osaka midfielder Yasuhito Endo admits his side will struggle to reach the knockout phase of the 2012 Asian Champions League.

Gamba slumped to a 2-0 defeat to Adelaide United on Tuesday, leaving the Japanese outfit without a point after two games in this season’s competition.

Endo’s side are bottom of their ACL group, with Adelaide on top on six points, while Pohang and Bunyodkor are next on three points apiece.

“We can only look forward,” Endo told reporters. “If we win the next four matches we have a chance, and our biggest issue today was set plays.”

“I hope we can work our way through that and prepare for the next match. But as far as the ACL is concerned, even if we draw the next match it’ll be hard for us so I definitely want us to be in a position to take all three points.”

New coach Jose Carlos Serrao, who replaced long-time boss Akira Nishino in the off-season, is under increasing pressure after the defeat and admitted there is a lot of work to be done.

“It is a very bad result. This is four losses in a row and we are still making mistakes,” the Brazilian said.

“We are losing to ourselves. We knew from the beginning Adelaide would play this way with high balls, but we lost.”

“We need to work hard to get better and we need to change our players’ mentality on how to defend because we are repeating simple mistakes and giving chances to the opponents.”

“We need to pay attention when we are marking because now it is not enough and we are giving the opponents chances to score goals.”