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Al Qadsiah are thriving under new manager Brendan Rodgers, although he hasn’t ruled out contention for the Roshn Saudi League title – at least not yet.<\/p>\n
“We have to stay very humble,” said Rodgers after Al Qadsiah claimed their fourth straight win with a 5-0 home win over Al Fayha on Wednesday. “I’m very happy with the reaction of the team. They took our ideas very quickly and were very brave in the way I asked them to play.”<\/p>\n
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That much is evident. Since Rodgers replaced Michel last month, Al Qadsiah are unbeaten in five RSL matches, with their debut in the top flight in Saudi Arabia where they drew 1-1 with Damac.<\/p>\n
However, there were victories against Al Shabab, Al Riyadh, Al Nassr – their best result of the 2025-26 RSL – and Al Fayha. Heading into Matchweek 16, Al Qadsiah sit in fifth place in the table, although they are one point behind second place and eight off leaders Al Hilal.<\/p>\n
“There is still a long way to go this season,” reminded Rodgers. “And for me, if we can keep improving and improving and doing our best, let’s see where it takes us to the end.”<\/p>\n
The biggest improvement in Rodgers’ reign so far, obviously, has been in attack. In those four recent victories, Al Qadsiah have stolen 14 goals, an average of 3.5 per game. In comparison, that metric averaged 1.8 goals this season until Michel’s departure.<\/p>\n
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Al Qadsiah, along with Rodgers, revealed from the outset that the Northern Irishman was brought in to establish a more aggressive style of play at the Al Khobar club.<\/p>\n
“When we arrived, some of the problems were about scoring goals,” said Rodgers. “Because the team is strong in defense and we quickly implemented our idea of \u200b\u200battacking the ball – but always keeping the balance.<\/p>\n
“And we saw that in our first games when we scored five goals [against Al Fayha] good, but not conceding goals, for me it’s also really good.<\/p>\n
“We gave the team structure and balance to really go and attack the game and attack the box, but our balance behind the ball is also good.<\/p>\n
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“We still have a lot to improve on and a lot of progress. But, in this short period of time, I’m very happy with the team’s result.”<\/p>\n
The most exciting point from Wednesday was Eyad Houssa marking his RSL debut with a goal. The Saudi teenager, 19, beat the hosts on Thursday night with a delicious half-volley, which pleased Rodgers.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, the former Liverpool and Celtic manager was recalled to have helped guide a young Raheem Sterling through his early years in the Anfield club’s senior team. Yes, Sterling would go on to win the English Premier League four times and represent the England national team over 80 times.<\/p>\n
“Throughout my career, I’ve given young players a chance,” said Rodgers. \u201cRaheem had a special talent at the age of 17, when I brought him into the team, and he has had an amazing career.<\/p>\n
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“So, I’ve always looked at young players, and, with Eyad, I like his talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, for him to come in and take advantage of his opportunity and score a good goal, I’m happy for him and happy for his family and happy for all the good work being done at the academy.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if he will be like Raheem Sterling, but he took his first step well. And now he has to stay humble and keep learning.”<\/p>\n
Al Qadsiah is back in action on Sunday, with a trip to Al Hazem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Al Qadsiah are thriving under new manager Brendan Rodgers, although he hasn’t ruled out contention for the Roshn Saudi League title – at least not yet. “We have to stay very humble,” said Rodgers after Al Qadsiah claimed their fourth straight win with a 5-0 home win over Al Fayha on Wednesday. “I’m very happy …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1753,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions\/1753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}