What I read is Faraj is injured.. And what you think that Turki is pulling strings here is correct....You cant have players like Mujahid Manea who has done nothing for club in the team..Same for the new inclusion from Hilal.. The FA was and is biased towards Hilal players since ages.. And for your Sahlawi comment he's striker not play maker, I know if its helping the team in any cause but still never saw him doing what you said..show me some videos
Are you serious? Dawsari goal against Australia? Recent NT game against Moldlva. Sahlwahi is a great fit under a system that likes to keep the ball and rely on middfielders to run ( fahad, salem, yahya, taysir). He has regressed heavily as far as scoring is concerned but outside of mohanad asiri, who is a much better scorer there isnt much option. Asiri is not as good with ball position ball. The new coach even alluded to the fact that the midfielders like to keep the ball. I thought it was fairly obvious why bert kept sahlawi. Not a gpod CF, but he as decent passing that compliment Saudis strength in the middfield. The main thing right now is to have Faraj healthy and Abed. The former i thought was the real MVP in the qualifyers. Him and otay are a perefect possession ball hding fielder duo.
Well let's see since we have full strength squad now and a real test for Pizzi..My only concern is strikers have ability to finish the ball.. Not everytime the midfielders can go through the goal and shoot leaving a huge gap behind for counterattack.. Fahd and Abed are two wingers who we can rely on shooting on goal..Salem , I have rarely seen him shooting from inside or outside the box for a goal. Tayseer is deep lying midfielder but you can't rely on him everytime..
Today the score wasnt dissapointing but the performance was. Jaseem playing as a CM is a disaster since he is so poor at covering up for offensive wingers like Sharani. Al-Muwlaad, Dawsari, Sheri are all out of form ( thanks mr incompetent alsheik). Sheri can barely move. -If Faraj isnt ready, Mogahwi or Kanoo has to replace him. Not Al jaseem. - Good game from Sahlawi today. Like I said, he is awful at scoring goals now but he is a very good passer for his position. - Osama is really old and slow. Motaz or evem Jahfali are all clearly better players at this point.
- they pressed high today and because of that Ukraine had tons of room to operate in otayfs area. - Mostly played 4-1-4-1 but switched back to 4-2-3-1 when mogahwi came in for jaseem. - Sheri not only looked lile he was 50 years old, he also wasnt comfortable with his position. He might have to come off the bench because Al-abed seems ideal for that position. Imo they should go with Sahlawi Dawsari Abed Muwalad Otay Faraj Harbi Omar Motaz Sharani With Sheri, Al-Jaseem, Kano, Kuwaikibi being the main subs. This fixes a few issues.. - Sharani constantly going forward and leaving space. His area was vurneable. Against a competent winger the saudis would have beem smoked in the firdt half. - if they are going to press high, they will have one extra player that bridges between Defense and midfield. The high press left tons of holes in the middle.
Thanks @PinoyMarauder for the brief.. Could not watch the game but this helped a lot .. Agree with Hammad, Abdul Fatah is really good sub and can play for either player on the wings.. As for Fahd, Yahya & Salem, all played first game under Pizzi, so they would take time to adapt to his tactics. Maybe if he now stops experimenting the sides we might see all three pick up form . Next game against Belgium will be huge and morale shacking. If they play with there first team & we loose with respectable scoreline it would be beneficial for players and coaching staff.
Flashback to 1994 WC with Owairan single-handedly scoring one of the most iconic World Cup goals against Belgium.
To be honest, I believe that there's still room for one more striker in the team (be it Nasser Al Shamrani) since we cannot rely on only Sahlawi and Muhannad in the World Cup.
No not really. I had sahlawhi starting simply because Pizzi is adamant about starting one CF otherwise they could easily play with no real striker and go Fahad Salem abed Yahya Faraj Otayf
I actually think playung without a CF is great for this team. Imo its the one way they could optimize their real strength. The thing is the best subs Are Kanoo, Jahfali, Kuwakibi and Mogahwi. They are all better than Sahlwai and Asiri. - You can bring in Kanoo if they need to pollute the midfiled more to better control the field - Mogahwi is a versstile midfielder. He can play as a CM without sacrificing too much offensive quality -Kuwaikibi can sub any of the big 5 middfield Etc.
I think its too early to judge the right playing 11 now since Pizzi has only incharge of first official match against Ukraine. We might judge him more after 2 more matches.. As of now, IMO we need 2 more strikers to fill in Sahlawi & I don't think Shamrani is option. I still prefer Mukhtar Fallatah and hope the coach gives him chance, he's strong in air and can dribble too. Next one to catch some eye was Islam Seraj but he faded after match days.. Abdul Aziz Aryani for Ittihad is good too but he's too young for this big stage.. Hazza Al Hazza is sadly out but he looked promising..
Mukhatar is injured. Diaz had a good eye for talent. Its too bad turki al sheik likes to make decisions for other clubs. It was crazy after one tweet from him he is immedirtly fired the day after.
Also I think the starting eleven is almost 100% set. Only two playets that might start is faraj and Alabed if he is healthy. They're not going to bench osama and they didnt even pick al breik
I find it mind-boggling how Diaz has been sacked, after all, missteps is part of the game and is important for development, if we dont learn from it and continue changing coaches left and right, we are in for a perpetual failure.
Dude, you dont follow turki al sheik? The day before he was sacked he tweeted "it looks like diaz wants to continue coaching...." He is a litteral egomaniac.
Diaz IMO , was decent coach not a very great coach. If you look at the scorelines, all were slim apart from one or 2 matches..His whole team or his tactics was build around Eduaordo and it collapsed as soon as he got injured. Also, Diaz was surviving coz other clubs were suffering.That's why I like coaches who don't build around a player & keep his job safe as long as he's there. But Turki's influence is not fair for any clubs and if it continues for another season I highly see the fans start disapproving his tactics & loose trust in the league
Let' fill in the players who are already on plane to Russia - GK: Yasser Al Mosalem, Waleed Abdullah Defenders : Osama Hawsawi, Omar Hawsawi, Moatez Hawsawi, Yasser Shahrani, Mansour Harbi Midfielders: Tayseer Jassem, Salman Faraj, Abdullah Otayf, Abdul Malek Khaibari,Yahya Sehri, Hussain Moghawi, Ibrahim Ghaleb, Fahd Muwallad, Salem Dawsari, Nawaf Abed Forwards: Mohammed Sahlawi, Muhannad Asiri I have listed 19 players out of 23. For GK, we have 3 way battle - Fawaz Al Qarni, Abdullah Mayouf & Mohammed Owaif For Rest - Hassan Muaz, Mohammed Buraik, Abdullah Zori, Abdul Aziz Jebreen, Abdul Fatah Asiri, Nasser Shamrani, Jamal Bajandoh, Mohammad Al Kuwaikbi, Mohammed Kanoo, Ali Azqaan have to prove themselves for the rest spots..
Yeah Turki al-Sheikh's reign has been nothing short of a disaster. Between.. not renewing for van Marwijck, sending our best players (without the consultation of anyone) to sit and get fat on Spanish benches, meddling in club affairs, and ad-hoc rule changes, he's managed to destroy Saudi football. But what did we expect from an authority run by a twitter fanboy? In some ways it's good. It's tempered my excitement for this summer. I was originally looking forward to the opening match, and with having some banter with our Egyptian neighbours. Now I just want it over with. BTW are you ready for the beating we're going to get tonight? I feel the Belgians are keen on well and truly wiping away the WC'94 memory. They're also a much better team than 94 while we're worse than we were even on qualifiers judging by that awful performance against Ukraine...
Yeah. Its not like dawsari, Muwalad, Yahya wanted to go either. It was apparent from their body language they hated the move. I was watching the Q&A talk the media and player had with turki and adel and Tayseer al-jaseem said something along the lines of "turki never gets critizied for anything" lol... Yeah, saudi is gonna get smoked. If Pizzi insist on playing Jaseem over Mogahwi or Kano and leaving otayf as the only holding midfielder I can see this turn into a disaster. Hopefully when faraj comes back he goes back to two Dmfs. To pizzi credit, if faraj does come back and he will. He didnt make any drastic changes to Van Marwjik squad. I am just pissed Yahya, Salem, Fahad are all getting fat. Turki is ruining club football though. What excitement do fans get knowing turki has his hands on all clubs. Its crazy.
Btw, All AFC teams save for Iran are in a hot mess. Saudi, Australis, Japan, Korea all look like they are going to embarass asia.
The Belgians don't play around! Dayum that starting lineup: Belgium: Simon Mignolet Jan Vertonghen , Vincent Kompany , Toby Alderweireld Yannick Carrasco , Axel Witsel , Kevin DeBruyne , Thomas Meunier Dries Mertens , Eden Hazard Romelo Lukaku Saudi: Fawwaz al-Qarni Hassan Moaz , Omar Hosawi , Motaz Hosawi , Mansour al-Harbi Abdullah Otaif , Tayseer al-Jassem , Hussein al-Mogahwi Fahad al-Muwallad , Salem al-Dossary Mohammed al-Sahlawi