Sergio Conceição’s future as Al-Ittihad’s coach is hanging in the balance, as the club’s management is not ruling out the possibility of dismissing him due to poor results.
Al-Ittihad suffered a heavy 4-2 defeat against Al-Duhail in the AFC Champions League in Qatar, sparking a wave of criticism against the coach, who took over on October 8th, succeeding Frenchman Laurent Blanc.
The newspaper “A Bola” revealed that Al-Ittihad’s management supports Conceição and has informed him of this, but it is clear that continued poor results could ultimately lead to the Portuguese coach’s dismissal.
Under Conceição, Al-Ittihad has won four matches, lost three, and drawn one. Performance has shown no improvement compared to Blanc’s era. The Jeddah Tigers also lost the derby against Al-Ahli, and their Asian campaign has been further complicated by the defeat against Al-Duhail.
It’s true that Al-Ittihad’s management understands the need to give Conceição time, but under the pressure of the fans, there’s an urgent need to see positive results, especially in the Asian Champions League.
Al-Ittihad appreciates that Conceição has developed a number of players individually, but collectively, things are pretty much the same. Therefore, the management’s patience is questionable, and the coach will need to achieve consecutive victories in all competitions to secure his position.
It’s worth noting that Al-Ittihad, under Conceição, currently sits seventh in the Saudi Professional League, 11 points behind leaders Al-Nassr. In the Asian Champions League, they are in eighth place with only 6 points from their first 5 matches. However, the Portuguese coach did lead Al-Ittihad to the quarterfinals of the King’s Cup, eliminating Al-Nassr in Riyadh in the Round of 16.
