LONDON: Saudi Arabia have a new head coach as Georgios Donis replaces Herve Renard with the 2026 World Cup looming on the horizon. Here are six things that the former Greek international and Al-Khaleej head coach needs to do to get the Green Falcons flying again.
Find a new match winner
Since 1994, when Saeed Al-Owairan made his mark, Saudi Arabia have won two games at the World Cup: Egypt in 2018 and Argentina four years later. Salem Al-Dawsari scored the winning goal in both of those games.
Approaching 35, he remains the team’s main goal-getter and talisman, with few others emerging in recent years, though the likes of Saleh Al-Shehri, Firas Al-Buraikan and others have shown flashes. To have success this summer, the Al-Hilal man is going to need help, and others need to step up consistently to make the difference when it matters.
Whether that happens to be someone new remains to be seen, but Donis has precious little time to unearth new talent at this point. With his time in the SPL, Donis has, however, seen every Saudi player in the top tier and if he can find someone to take the pressure off the two-time Asian Player of the Year then the next few months, and years, will look a lot brighter.
Embrace the lack of time
While Saudi Arabia have changed coaches before World Cups in the past, doing so less than two months before the big kick-off is something else. Donis is going to have almost no time with the team before the first game against Uruguay on June 15.
There is nothing the 56-year-old can do about this and he has to try and turn this into a positive. After all, there is now not much pressure. If he fails, then he had just a few weeks to prepare but if he succeeds, then he will be hailed as a genius.
Since that famous win over Argentina, the Green Falcons’ fortunes have steadily dipped and the last qualification campaign was not one to remember. Donis has to come and lift the mood. With little time to train or play, the ex-Hilal coach has to focus on motivation and lifting the mood in the squad, the media and the fans. If he can get everyone excited about June then that is job half done.
And, having no time, means that Uruguay, Spain and Cape Verde suddenly have no idea how Saudi Arabia will play in June.
Settle on a team quickly
Even the most seasoned observers of Saudi Arabian football found it increasingly difficult to accurately predict Renard’s starting line-ups. Players were coming and going at a rapid rate as the Frenchman seemed to move further away from knowing his best team. For March’s friendly games against Egypt and Ivory Coast, he selected no fewer than 50 players, a sort of first and second string squads with players moving from one to another.
There was criticism that he was devaluing the shirt and it seemed it was almost easier for a local player to get a call-up than not, especially given the number of foreign players in the Saudi Pro League. One of Donis’s strengths is that he knows that league probably better than any other foreign coach. He needs to come in and have an idea of his best team and then fine-tune after training camps and warm-up games.
Sort out the defence
In his first spell Renard oversaw a team that was not exactly free-scoring but was fairly tight at the back. From 2019 to 2023, Saudi Arabia conceded an average of 0.84 goals. In his second tenure, which lasted 28 games, that figure rose by over 40 percent to 1.2 a game. At the World Cup, especially against Uruguay and Spain in the first two games, the best chance is to keep things tight, look to hit on the break and then be in a decent position going into the final fixture with Cape Verde.
The defence is far from a settled unit however. Donis should settle on his centre-back partnership that surely has to be built around Hassan Timbakti in front of a clear favoured goalkeeper -that Renard brought back Mohammed Al-Owais back from the second division in March showed that he was unsure about his best number one — to give the team the right foundation.
Look ahead and Inject some youth
It is not just about this summer’s tournament but the Asian Cup next January and the 2034 World Cup that will both be hosted by Saudi Arabia.
There is no doubt that Salman Al-Faraj was a fine player and his composed and cultured passing in midfield has been missed, but his international career seemed over in 2023. Despite the fact that he will soon be 37, Renard brought the NEOM man back in March when he should perhaps have been looking to inject more energy and youth.
Musab Al-Juwayr has plenty of creativity, can make things happen and, at 22, has energy and verve. He should be a mainstay of the team for much of the next decade and the same could be true of Saleh Abu Al-Shamat. If Donis can put the foundations in place for a first Asian Cup win this century then he will be a success whatever happens this June.
Work hard and do not complain
In retrospect — and some said this at the time — Renard should never have returned after leaving the job in 2023. He did not seem to have the same energy and during the FIFA Arab Cup in December, a big tournament in its own right and vital preparation for June, he left Qatar to attend the World Cup draw in Miami. He also then echoed Roberto Mancini’s complaints about what he saw as a lack of playing time for local players. Mancini also criticized some senior players before the 2023 Asian Cup.
Donis should avoid such harmful scenarios and focus on doing the opposite — work hard, give everything and bring a sense of pride, excitement and positivity in the national team. That would send out the right message to everyone in the national team from staff to players.
