Ranieri talks Saud Abdulhamid’s evolution after impressive performance vs Braga | OneFootball

Roma boss Claudio Ranieri spoke about Saud Abdulhamid’s evolution that culminated in his first goal on European soil tonight.

In fact, Saud’s goal against Braga was the first goal scored by a Saudi player in a European competition.

In his post-match presser, Ranieri said the following about Saud:

“Watching him in training made it difficult for me to make decisions. With no friendly matches available, I found myself thinking: “Should I put him in or not?”

“Considering that we were playing against teams like Napoli or Tottenham, even putting him in during the game could have been risky. However, during training I saw how much he pushed and how much he committed himself to the team.”

“I started to insist with his teammates too, saying: “Look at how fast he is, let’s give him the ball at the right time, you’ll see that when he sprints, nobody will catch him.”

“Tonight we got to know him better. Of course he is a boy who still needs to improve, because sometimes he is a bit too instinctive. He needs to learn to slow down in some situations, but he is an intelligent player that we can work on.”