Football Season Guide

Difficult last season. Lucky to stay 3 points above the relegation zone considering they had the second-fewest wins, only 8. The 12 draws that were achieved proved precious. Survival looked unlikely early on. Changed managers in December, Tzolis was sacked and Portuguese Emanuel took over. This helped. Better spring made survival possible. Parted ways with their trusted playmaker Cimirot and his main partner Shukurov. Star striker Onyekuru also left, so did the main assists-provider Lopez. Pozuelo also left to further reduce the creative talent on the roster. Experienced Benzia arrived from Azerbaijan to likely be the new main ball-distributor in midfield. Sakala remains the only reliable goalscorer up front, with newcomer Jason not very impressive player in terms of scoring goals regularly. Al Fayha have only 5 foreign players age 21 or over right now. This means they can still add 3 foreign stars to the roster. Finding another centre-back is important. 35-year-old Englishman Smalling is solid when fit but last season he spent more time in the treatment room than on the pitch. Coach Emanuel has to find a way to improve vastly the forward actions too. Nobody scored fewer than Al Fayha’s 27 goals last season, even the bottom 3 went over 30, which combined with the departures of so many forward assets really causes concern. Right now it is hard to see anybody outside Sakala scoring more than 2-3 goals this season. The Zambian is capable of doing that but he has a long history of serious injuries too and keeping him healthy has been a challenge.