The best start I could have had in the first half of the season even if we had uneasy times with the players who wanted to leave. And seeing the other 2 teams who were meant to be next to us floundering below the top 3 spots I was surprised.
Al-Raed were floundering so badly they sacked their head coach(Given they were one of the jobs I was aiming for and didn’t bother hiring me you DESERVE it)
We were breaking records left, right and center. Not just in the transfer window but also in the league and the club as a whole. Wins, Goals and everything else. We’re keeping the finances healthy enough too.
A few matches which made me wonder were below:
Our King’s Cup run started against Al-Ettifaq from the Pro League and boy am I glad some of their major foreign players were injured for that match:
Then it was Al-Adalah who are near the top part with us and we were facing them twice: once in the King’s Cup and next in the league. This was the cup fixture:
A classic case of making the horrible opposition keeper look good. But honestly seeing this kind of shot accuracy of 12/16 is much better than when I was at Aizawl so silver linings. I was still frustrated pulling them all the way to Extra Time to beat them. But I guess it helped because the league fixture went like so:
And this is how you handle fitness after a quick turnaround after a cup match 😎. We dominated this so much better than the last time even if there were hairy moments.
But after the King’s Cup win we face a monster:
The biggest rep team in Saudi Arabia and the most loaded team in this country to boot. It’s going to be a struggle.
The top performers so far
For just 100K GBP he was a super capable player at RB which is always helpful. The other major players were mostly on loan who will eventually be replaced by foreigners when I’m back in the SPL.
Half a million GBP after I didn’t realize Alarcon had a relegation release clause he was a godsend in the RW position. Really good creative despite him being an Inside forward(In simple terms his role just means he wants to finish over creating)
One of the first people I had in mind to bring in after Al-Ettifaq wanted him gone. He is good enough to help us till promotion but might go down the pecking order after our promotion really. But he’s doing well leading us from CDM.
A fairly good coup from Al-Ittihad from the Pro League. And someone I can see staying through our SPL charge one day. Super good going forward and he is decent enough defensively too. Maybe he stays through our SPL campaign when we’re back but it’s a while in the future.
Someone who I do plan to replace once the foreign limit is doubled. He has delivered so far in terms of goals but given his lack of height and considering even my backup is short too I feel like I have a bit of difference where I can’t cross to the big man in the middle. So instead my tactic has been overwhelm them in the box with our 2 CM’s bombing forward.
I did manage to bring in some young Saudi talents for backup who look fairly capable which I am happy with. I was always just annoyed at how bad my midfield backups were so I needed to shore up there. And honestly the foreign keeper I brought is a good one being 6 foot 5 but he has had some wild Onana moments let’s just say.
So given I reached January, this was the time when most people had their contracts expiring and we can approach them if we wanted to. And I need to bring in a lot of good talent in the foreigner department. I have a few in mind that I am scouting. It’s just a matter of if they will take a chance on us given we are still technically in the second division still.