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Steven Gerrard has voiced frustrations with the quality of his squad at Saudi Pro League team Al Ettifaq and said the club must “show we mean business” by making new signings in the January transfer window.
Former Rangers and Aston Villa manager Gerrard took charge of Al Ettifaq in July and oversaw a summer recruitment programme that led to Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wijnaldum, Moussa Dembélé and Demarai Gray joining.
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But after losing 3-1 to Cristiano Ronaldo‘s Al Nassr on Friday, Al Ettifaq are now eighth in the Saudi Pro League, 26 points behind leaders Al Hilal, with an eight-game winless streak dating back to October.
With pressure beginning to mount on Gerrard, the former Liverpool and England captain has challenged Al Ettifaq’s owners to show ambition in the transfer market next month.
“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,” Gerrard said after the defeat to Al Nassr.
“It’s a collective thing — the players here and now need to give more, and people need to step up and, at the right time, we will hopefully be able to make significant changes to the team and the squad.
“Hopefully at the back end of January you will see a different, stronger and more competitive squad.
“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.”
Al Ettifaq have one more game, against Al Hazem on Dec. 28, before the Saudi Pro League closes down until February, heaping pressure on Gerrard to halt the team’s slump before the transfer window opens.
But Gerrard said that a recent injury to seven-goal top scorer Dembele highlighted the lack of quality in his squad.
“We are really happy with a lot of individuals, both foreign and some local players,” he said. “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.”