Al-Ahly club is preparing to play a decisive confrontation against the Abidjan Stadium team, within the framework of the group stage of the African Champions League, tomorrow evening, Saturday.
Al-Ahly will be a guest at Abidjan Stadium, at six in the evening tomorrow, Saturday, at the Felix Boigny Stadium, in the Ivorian capital, for the fifth round of the group stage.
Al-Ahly ranks second in Group C with 7 points, behind leaders Orlando Pirates with 8 points, followed by CR Belouizdad with 6 points, and Abidjan Stadium bottoms the standings with one point.
Returning with a valuable victory from the Abidjan clash tomorrow, Saturday, may decide Al-Ahly’s qualification to the next round, by reaching 10 points, and waiting for the result of the second match between Orlando and Belouizdad, which if the latter loses will officially leave the competitions, especially if the Red Giant wins.
The wing hole worries Kohler
The winger’s gap, in light of absences and injuries, is still the main crisis affecting Swiss Marcel Kohler in Al-Ahly, which he tried to solve during the last confrontation against Smouha by changing the plan to 3-4-3 instead of 4-3-3, by involving a defensive trio, but after an injury. Moroccan Achraf Dari was forced to return to his usual method.
Despite Dari’s injury, continuing to change the playing style to 3-4-3 is possible against Abidjan Stadium, following the return of Mohamed Hani to the team roster after recovering from injury, which will give the Swiss coach more solutions.
Continuing with the 3-4-3 playing style, it may be by involving Youssef Ayman next to Rami Rabia and Yasser Ibrahim, thus forming a clear defensive trio, or by relying on one of the right-back trio (Hani, Akram, Khaled), next to Rabia and Yasser, with Hussein participating. Al-Shahat again in the right half position in the midfield.
The 3-4-3 plan solves the winger’s crisis, but it simply makes Kohler rely on the full-backs in a more balanced role between attack and defense, and thus the possibility of benefiting from players with different skills becomes very available. This is one of the reasons for Kohler’s decision to include Emam and Afsha in the match against Smouha, so that they are below Wissam. Abu Ali, Marwan and Akram succeeded them in defensive roles.
Or return to the familiar 4-3-3 method, and here Kohler may not have to rely on Imam Ashour in the wing position, by defending with two right-backs on the entire front, for example, Akram is at the back and Hani is ahead of him, and consequently Al-Shahat goes to the left side, Imam returns to his natural place in the middle.
Especially since the Swiss coach will not be able to employ Karim Al-Dbis this time in the wing position, following the injury and absence of the Moroccan Yahya Attiya Allah, and therefore Al-Dbis will replace him as a left-back, and this may change in one case, which is Kohler’s decision to include Khaled Abdel Fattah on the left defensive side. “He did it.” before”.
In the end, the numerical abundance in the midfield with the presence of 8 players, namely: Marwan Attia, Akram Tawfiq, Amr Al-Soulia, Karim Walid, Omar Al-Saei, Ahmed Nabil Koka, Imam Ashour, Muhammad Magdy Afsha, in addition to the young man Mustafa Abu Al-Khair, makes Kohler’s breakthrough. To solve the ward’s crisis by exploiting the employment of someone with different tasks to overcome this crisis, even if temporarily.
In your opinion… who is nominated to play as a winger for Al-Ahly against Abidjan Stadium?
