Saudi coach Donis laments lack of time with squad after Uruguay fightback

MIAMI: Saudi Arabia coach Georgios Donis said he had not been in charge long enough to ensure the squad has the tactical flexibility needed to deal with an experienced Uruguay side after their 1-1 draw with the South Americans at the World Cup on Monday.

Donis replaced Herve Renard in late April and their Group H opener at Miami Stadium was his first competitive game with the team after three pre-tournament friendlies.

“For us, within three weeks we’ve been trying to set up our game, build up our game and have a better spirit,” said Donis.

“When we’re faced with certain opponents, getting one point is a positive event and this is a booster for our psychology.

“Currently I’m trying to learn my team, I’m trying to learn my players and get to know them. I see how they react and behave and what I’ve seen is that, due to the lack of time, we cannot be flexible during the match.

“We know how to play 4-4-2 or 4-3-2-1, but we must be able to play with three midfielders or with five defenders. At the moment, unfortunately, we’re not that flexible. It takes time to get to know how to do it.”

The Saudis were on top for much of the first half and took the lead in the 41st minute when Abdulelah Alamri capitalised on an error by Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera.

Uruguay dominated after the interval and forced the Saudis to defend deep. With 10 minutes remaining, Maxi Araujo slid in to score a deserved equaliser.

“We can say in the first half we had good control over the play and we had opportunities to score without being very decisive,” said Donis.

“In the second half, if someone analyses it, one can say that a possible scenario was that we had the lead and we thought mostly defensively. We had already scored and we wanted to keep that.

“Were we, perhaps, tired in the second half? It appeared to be that in the second half we didn’t have the same intensity. Our opponent was able to go deeper into our half.

“We didn’t show enough self-confidence to keep possession of the ball in order to change their tempo, so that meant that we had pressure near our box. Thankfully we had an excellent goalkeeper and an excellent defence today.

“I’m trying to learn my team better and to see how we think.”