Sérgio Conceição warns after Saudi draw: “We must change fitness” | OneFootball

Soon after Al-Ittihad’s draw at Al-Fayha’s ground (1-1) this Friday, Sérgio Conceição considered his debut in the Saudi Arabian league to be an unfortunate one, acknowledging that “many things” will need to change and criticizing the limited spirit of the current Saudi champions.

“I arrived only recently and we need to change many things, including physical preparation. Even so, I can’t change everything at once,” he began to ‘reveal’ at the start of the press conference analyzing the match that kicked off the fifth round of the competition, in statements quoted by the newspaper Al-Arriyadiah.

He was also asked to comment on the missed penalty by Karim Benzema in the final moments, which prevented Al-Ittihad’s comeback against the team coached by Pedro Emanuel.

“The decision on who takes the penalties is up to the players. They decide among themselves. They agree with each other and the truth is that I have three players capable of taking penalties,” revealed Sérgio Conceição.

“With our level [shown] today, we’re going to suffer… This spirit is not enough and there are tactical issues we will work on. Substitutions? They happened due to a tactical change. The team appeared different in the second half and registered many attacks,” added the experienced Portuguese coach.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.