{"id":51826,"date":"2024-01-24T12:45:09","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T12:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/saudi-arabia-coach-roberto-mancini-stands-by-young-players-despite-doubts\/"},"modified":"2024-01-24T12:45:09","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T12:45:09","slug":"saudi-arabia-coach-roberto-mancini-stands-by-young-players-despite-doubts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/saudi-arabia-coach-roberto-mancini-stands-by-young-players-despite-doubts\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia coach Roberto Mancini stands by young players despite doubts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure class=\"featuredimg\">\n <\/p>\n<p class=\"captionimg\">Saudi Arabia coach Roberto Mancini stands by young players despite doubts<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Mancini defends youth focus despite Saudi criticism.<\/li>\n<li>Saudi Arabia win secures round of 16 spot in Asian Cup.<\/li>\n<li>Coach: Young players key to future success.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Roberto Mancini, the coach of Saudi Arabia, has come under fire for the players he chose for his squad at the Asian Cup, but on Wednesday he reaffirmed that it is his philosophy to incorporate young players so they may develop into veterans and help the team succeed.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia dispatched nine-man Kyrgyzstan 2-1 in their group stage match to secure their place in the round of sixteen. Before their final game against Thailand, who are currently in second place, they lead Group F (four points).<\/p>\n<p>But when Mancini claimed that three players had chosen to leave the camp\u2014a claim that the players refuted\u2014Saudi Arabia landed in Qatar under a cloud of uncertainty regarding their starting lineup.<\/p>\n<p>Former Saudi captain Yasser Al-Qahtani branded Mancini a \u201ccoward\u201d for benching players who he claimed had performed well for the national team in the past, and players from the team that famously defeated Argentina in the 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bolnews.com\/sports\/2024\/01\/pakistans-fifa-world-cup-qualifier-may-be-played-at-neuteral-venue\/\">World Cup<\/a> were not selected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy policy is that the players who are ready to play will play. I have 26 players. Some are famous, others are young, but if you win it\u2019s as a team, not because of one player,\u201d Mancini told reporters ahead of Thursday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to have a strong team with a strong mentality. We need them to think they can win all games as a team together. I use players that I feel can be important now and for the future. We have a mix of some young players and senior players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the next month we need to change and increase the number of young players for the future. For now we have to think about this tournament, which is very important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Saudi captain Yasser Al-Qahtani branded Mancini a \u201ccoward\u201d for benching players who he claimed had performed well for the national team in the past, and players from the team that famously defeated Argentina in the 2022 World Cup were not selected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve managed this team for four months. Sometimes it\u2019s not enough, you need more time. But we\u2019ve improved a lot in four months and we can improve in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan we win? I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s a long road but we want to try.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a lot of chances in the last game and didn\u2019t score enough, we have to improve this. But it\u2019s important we\u2019re able to create chances. After that, probably we will score.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mancini refuted rumors that, after declaring Australia, Japan, Iran, and South Korea as the favorites last week, he declared Saudi Arabia had no chance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI only said there are four teams \u2014 Japan, Korea, Australia and Iran \u2014 who are very high in the rankings and they have more chances to win. But I never said we can\u2019t win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"alsoread\">\n<h4 class=\"text-uppercase mb-10 mt-20 fs-18\">Also Read<\/h4>\n<div class=\"post-box sty22\">\n<div class=\"post-frame js-ratioHtP\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bolnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/FotoJet-2023-12-08T154120.108-254x144.jpg\" alt=\"Saudi Arabia defends FIFA World Cup 2034 bid, rejects \u201csportswashing\u201d claims\"\/><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<h5 class=\"title\">Saudi Arabia defends FIFA World Cup 2034 bid, rejects \u201csportswashing\u201d claims<\/h5>\n<p>Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Sports Minister defends the FIFA World Cup 2034 bid. Accusations&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bolnews.com\/sports\/2023\/12\/saudi-arabia-defends-fifa-world-cup-2034-bid-rejects-sportswashing-claims\/\" class=\"post-link\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saudi Arabia coach Roberto Mancini stands by young players despite doubts Mancini defends youth focus despite Saudi criticism. Saudi Arabia win secures round of 16 spot in Asian Cup. Coach: Young players key to future success. Roberto Mancini, the coach of Saudi Arabia, has come under fire for the players he chose for his squad [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bolnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/FotoJet-2024-01-24T162157.566.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}