After a steady coaching career that included an undefeated championship at Rangers, Steven Gerrard made his first attempt at the Premier League with Aston Villa. Although the club’s ranking rose with momentum at the beginning of his tenure, he gradually exposed his lack of tactical skills, and was dismissed in October 2022 due to poor results.
After that, he remained on a freelance basis, but this season he sought a new home in Saudi Arabia, where the entire country is working to strengthen soccer. When he took the helm of Al Ettifaq, he added former Liverpool warriors such as Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wynaldum to the team.
Even though they are not strong enough to compete at the top of the table, they are more than twice as many points ahead of Al Hilal, Al Nassr, and other strong teams. Gerrard expressed his satisfaction with the current team, but also said that further reinforcements are inevitable.
“We have already had important meetings at Al Ettifaq in terms of mid-season updates and where every individual is, and where the group is at. The message, in summary, that we have sent is that we need to be aggressive, we need to be ruthless, and we need to make a lot of changes to make this team more competitive.”
“We are really happy with a lot of individuals, both foreign and some local players. But if you look at us, once Moussa [Dembele] came out of the team [through injury], the weaknesses in our team have been highlighted, as have the options we had. We need to show in this window, and also the summer window, that we mean business and we want to be competitive at the top of the league, and not where we are at the moment. It’s a collective thing.”
Al Ettifaq is also interested in former Brazilian international Roberto Firmino, who has seen his playing time dwindle with Al Ahli, and could be a source of reinforcements from teams in Saudi Arabia this winter.
Will the Saudi Professional League be the one to make a major reinforcement, not only for Al Ettifaq?