Five talking points from Roberto Mancini’s first games as Saudi Arabia head coach

A few weeks after his appointment as new Saudi Arabia head coach, Italian Roberto Mancini took to the dugout for his first matches, a double-header of friendlies against Costa Rica and South Korea.

The Green Falcons came out on the losing side in both fixtures, but Mancini will have learned valuable lessons as he looks to fast track the process of building a side that can go far at next year's Asian Cup in Qatar.

Over the past few years, the ball-playing goalkeeper has emerged as one of the biggest tactical shifts in modern football, influencing decisions on recruitment for major clubs as well as national team selection, see Manchester United's decision to sign Andre Onana to replace long-serving David de Gea.

This trend posed an early question of Mancini in his first matches in charge of the Green Falcons.

In Nawaf Al Aqidi, Saudi Arabia possess a promising, modern goalkeeper, who despite being only 23, impressed at Al Nassr when called upon to start following an injury to Colombian veteran David Ospina last season. So good was Al Aqidi’s displays that he convinced coach Luis Castro not to invest in a new foreign goalkeeper ahead of the 2023/24 Saudi Pro League season.

Al Aqidi was selected to start between the sticks in Mancini’s first match, a 3-1 defeat to Costa Rica – both games were played att St James' Park in Newcastle, England – and his performance over the 90 minutes embodied everything that is both good and bad about him. The young goalkeeper was heavily involved in build-up play and distribution, but not without the odd misplaced pass or uncalculated risk. On one occasion, he had to be rescued by a goal-line clearance from Hassan Tambakti.

Against South Korea, Mancini went for the tried and tested, starting