Six things Donis needs to do as new coach of Saudi Arabia

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. 

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