Andre Villas-Boas will attempt to overcome his team's faltering form, and an early morning return from the scene of their latest defeat when Shanghai SIPG take on Guangzhou Evergrande in the AFC Champions League (ACL) on Tuesday evening.
His side are at home for the first leg as the two Chinese Super League (CSL) giants face off in the quarterfinals.
SIPG's delayed departure from Guiyang following a 2-1 loss to Gregorio Manzano's Guizhou Zhicheng side on Saturday evening saw them return to Shanghai at 4 a.m. to add to the Portuguese coach's woes, going into the crunch continental clash.
The loss at the weekend, coupled with Guangzhou's comfortable 3-0 win over Shanghai Shenhua, means SIPG now trail Evergrande by eight points at the top of the domestic standings. They go into the much-anticipated continental clash on a disappointing run of form that has seen them win only two of their last five games in all competitions.
"The result against Guizhou was not great, and then our flight was delayed," Villas-Boas said. "We arrived in Shanghai at 4 a.m. This was not good for our preparation.
"Though we are in the middle of a very difficult schedule, we will still do our best to overcome any difficulties and get ready for the match. The travelling was not easy, but we will stick to our plan."
Guangzhou, though, will be at a distinct advantage of not having had to travel, ahead of the game. They stayed in Shanghai following their win over Gustavo Poyet's side, having also faced off against SIPG in the middle of last week in the first leg of the semifinals of the Chinese FA Cup.
SIPG won that game to record their first victory over Evergrande this season after a defeat and a draw against Luiz Felipe Scolari's side in the CSL. The second leg of the Chinese FA Cup will be played next month.
"This kind of situation is not going to be solved simply by a set tactics," said Villas-Boas, who is aiming to take SIPG into the semifinals of the ACL for the first time in the club's history.
"From the 2013 season on, we hadn't won against Evergrande until our last confrontation. Statistics don't tell the whole story, but what we need to do is to score one more goal than them.
"Now our players are quite fit as we are approaching the end of the season. They're all used to the tight schedule. It is difficult to recover from fatigue, but we can only try the best to overcome it. So far, so good."