Vitoria Setubal midfielder Mikel Agu is worried at his side’s disastrous league run in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, Completesports.com reports.
Vitoria Setubal lost 1-0 at home to Sporting Braga on Saturday to stretch their winless run to 15 league games and this is causing Agu lots of concern over the top-flight status of the club if the slide is not arrested as the league enters the home stretch.
The Green and Whites last won a league game on December 1, 2018 – a 1-0 away win at Maritimo – and now sit just one point ahead of the relegation zone in the 18-team league table.
Agu, one of the team’s best performers, has been sidelined with a muscle injury since he played in the 0-0 draw at CD Nacional on February 3, and his absence has coincided with the club’s woeful form.
“I must confess I’m not comfortable with our position on the table. I have never been in this position with any team before and I don’t intend to watch this team go down,” Agu told Completesports.com in an exclusive interview.
“The whole team is concerned and we are ready to give it all our best to make sure Setubal stay up at the end of the season. I have confidence in the team and I hope to come back and join them as soon as possible.
The 25-year old all-action midfield enforcer was billed to return to action but suffered a relapse of the injury and is now declared out for another month by the club’s medical team.
“I’ve been out for a while and when I came back the injury recurred and I’ve been told I will be out for another month. It’s devastating because I want to play everytime,” Agu said.
“That’s the desire of every player and that’s what I’m paid to do, so you can understand my frustration. I hope to be back in action very soon.”
The club’s poor run of form claimed it’s the first victim with the departure of former coach Lito Vidigal but Agu is not convinced the manager’s exit is responsible for the team’s tottering form.
“I think it will not be entirely correct to say we are not doing too well because of the departure of coach Vidigal. Don’t forget we’d been in this situation, even going seven games without a win at one point, before he left,” he stated.
“Then you also ask if the team was doing well would he have resigned? Don’t forget that the week he left we had a game against Sporting Lisbon which ended 1-1 and we gave a good account of ourselves. We must search for solutions but it certainly didn’t have to do with his leaving.”
The recuperating star points fingers at the team’s blunt attack which has scored just 20 goals in 26 league games – the third worst in the league – as the cause of their struggling form.
Agu added: “No doubt we have a good team and we play good football. Our problem, if you ask me, is in the attack. If you check the stats of most of the games we’ve played so far we tend to dominate and create loads of goalscoring chances but we always end up drawing or losing by the odd goal because we can’t seem to put the ball in the net.
“Now we have 10 games left to play and we must treat them like 10 World Cup final games because we must fight for each point all the way until we beat the drop.”
Agu had been involved in 14 league games, scored one goal and copped three yellow cards with two Portuguese League Team of the Week nominations before his injury setback.
By Johnny Edward.
