Steven Gerrard’s dream Saudi move turns into nightmare after embarrassing draw with Al-Ettifaq winless in two months

4 months ago 59

STEVEN GERRARD’S Saudi Arabia nightmare continued as his side conceded a last-minute equaliser to strugglers Al-Hazm.

The former Aston Villa boss became manager of Al-Ettifaq in the summer.

Steven Gerrard’s side are winless in two months[/caption]

He brought several ex-Premier League stars with him including Jordan Henderson, Demarai Gray, Moussa Dembele and former Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum.

Gray opened the scoring for Al-Ettifaq in the 70th minute and Gerrard looked set to finally end his nine-game winless streak.

It is a run that has lasted around two months.

To his horror, however, his side gave away a stoppage time penalty to throw away two points.

Opponents Al-Hazm have won just two of their 19 Saudi Pro League games this term.

So Gerrard was left particularly dismayed when Toze levelled from the spot.

Prior to tonight’s clash, Al-Ettifaq had won every clash with Al-Hazm since February 2020.

Gerrard, 43, was axed by Aston Villa last season.

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And he has now begun to face scrutiny in Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this week, he begged for reinforcements to improve his squad.

He said: “We have already had important meetings at Al Ettifaq in terms of mid-season updates and where every individual is, and where the group is at.

“The message, in summary, that we have sent is that we need to be aggressive, we need to be ruthless, and we need to make a lot of changes to make this team more competitive.

“We are really happy with a lot of individuals, both foreign and some local players.

“But if you look at us, once Moussa came out of the team, the weaknesses in our team have been highlighted, as have the options we had.

“We need to show in this window, and also the summer window, that we mean business and we want to be competitive at the top of the league, and not where we are at the moment.

“It’s a collective thing.”

Next up Al-Ettifaq host tenth-place Al-Khaleej, before a trip to leaders Al-Hilal, who boast the likes of Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ruben Neves – although star man Neymar remains a long-term absentee.