Brendan Rodgers: Al-Qadisiyah’s match against Al-Ahly is difficult and we are preparing to take advantage of the opportunities

Brendan Rodgers, coach of the Al-Qadisiyah team, said that his team's match against Al-Ahly will be difficult because it is against a large team full of distinguished names of players and competing teams, recalling the scenario of the last match between the two teams months ago at the end of the season and how his team succeeded in winning.

In the press conference for the match, Rodgers said that Al-Qadisiyah is not afraid of any team and has names of distinguished technical level of local and foreign players, explaining that the competition is strong in the league and that the matches are difficult, indicating that they are seeking to create trouble for the competitor.

Concerning the fears of a repeat of the scenario of the Al-Ittihad match in the second round, where Al-Qadisiyah dominated but the visitors won, Rodgers said in his response to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat’s question: “In the Al-Ittihad match, we gave a great performance and a beautiful match, and it is considered one of the best matches we played, in which we reached the opponent’s goal several times, but we lacked success. I am satisfied with what the players presented in that match, and I am only dissatisfied with the result. In the Al-Ahly match, we will not spare any effort, and we are facing a team with stars, as I mentioned, and we must deliver. We take advantage of opportunities and our goal will be to achieve a positive result.”

Regarding top scorer Ivan Toney and the possibility of limiting his danger, Rodgers said: “I know this player well and his dangerous movements, and we will have a defensive organization in order to increase the difficulties for him and his team, and we seek to limit him and achieve what we want.”

Regarding the Moroccan player Sofiane Al-Karawani, who was contracted last summer and did not participate with Al-Qadisiyah in any official match before moving to Benfica of Portugal, Rodgers said: “When we signed Sofiane, there were ideas of playing in the 4-3-3 system, and there was really a need for a left-back with Sofiane’s specifications, but what happened was that it was difficult to change the approach because the players who are still with us are not easy to modify the method, and if I want to change the method means making extensive changes, and this is what I did not intend.” I want, we tried to get Sufyan in line with our preferred technical approach for the players, but he was not in line with the approach and wanted to participate in the largest number of matches. Therefore, it was important to take a step and allow him to move to a big club, and whenever we have an approach that suits his style, he will return, and Sufyan is a distinguished player, so he was chosen for Al-Qadisiyah, and then Benfica chose him.”

He praised the contributions made by the Saudi players, led by Musab Al-Jawir. He praised the player’s performance and that he is developing and creative and suits him in the technical approach that he loves to work with, through which Al-Qadisiyah achieved the best numbers since his arrival as coach in December of last year.