Zamalek succumbed to their fourth home defeat against lowly Mahalla and clearly seemed to be lacking firepower at Cairo Stadium.

Prior to the game, Mido was declared unfit for the game by the Cairo club, but his manager indicated there are other reasons behind his exclusion.

"Mido is not injured, he was not selected because he is not committed in training," Michel said in the post-match conference.

"Technically, we were ready to include him, but he missed the team's main session without permission and claimed that he is following a special program."

With a string of fitness problems, Mido has been far from efficient since joining Zamalek on loan from Middlesbrough in the summer.

Zamalek also missed Egypt hitman Amr Zaki, who was suspended for the Mahalla game, in addition to being injured.

A lot of Work

Michel was left stranded by the defeat as he admitted that his side need more effort to recover their lost form.

"I thought that I've added something to the team, but it seems that we need a lot of work," the Frenchman added.

"We played with a different formation today, yet we lost once again, so the problem is not in the playing strategy."

Zamalek suffered three defeats in six games with Michel, who replaced Swiss coach Michel Decastel in August.