Firas Al Arabi regains his brilliance after Pjanic’s departure

Tunisian star Firas Al Arabi regained his brilliance with Sharjah, after leading them to achieve their fourth consecutive victory this season, the last of which was at the expense of Khorfakkan in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Cup, with a score of 2-1.

Al Arabi benefited from the departure of Bosnian Miralem Pjanic at the end of last season, so that the Tunisian player got his full chance, as his abilities and potential appeared better than his first season with “the King”, during which he was subjected to great criticism due to his weak level, compared to what he was with Ajman, to the point that he was threatened with leaving the team.

Al Arabi took advantage of the Romanian coach Cosmin Olariu’s reliance on him as a mainstay in the Sharjah squad in all the matches his team played since the beginning of the season, as he stood out clearly by scoring the winning goal against Ittihad Kalba in the league, which is the goal that won “the King” to achieve full marks in two matches, and occupy second place in the general standings behind “the leader” Al Nasr for the superiority of goals.

The Sharjah midfielder recorded outstanding numbers in the league with 99 passes, the correct percentage of which exceeded 85%. He also shone in the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Cup with 86 passes, including nine decisive passes.

Firas Al-Arabi’s danger became apparent after he returned to his natural position behind the attackers, which shows the extent of the danger of his decisive passes, and his ability to create goals for his teammates in the new season, after he sometimes participated last season on the right side, which affected his performance, whether in terms of creating play or completing attacks towards the goal.

The harmony that Firas Balarabi has reached with Brazilian striker Caio Lucas was also evident, which stirred up the stagnant waters at Sharjah Club after the departure of its Malian striker Moussa Marega, and the presence of Spanish striker Paco Alcacer on the bench most of the time, which made Romanian coach Olario Cosmin give Firas Balarabi complete freedom to advance in order to achieve numerical superiority inside the opponent’s box.

Firas Al Arabi expressed his happiness with his team’s good start to the new season, and the “King’s” success in achieving victory in the first two rounds of the league. He told “Emarat Al Youm”: “I am very happy with the confidence that the coach, the management and the fans have given me, and I am doing my best to provide the best that serves the team and helps it achieve its goals this season.”

Regarding his vision of what the team has been offering since the beginning of the season, he said: “We are moving forward with steady steps, and the team is offering good levels. What we need is to reduce the number of missed opportunities in front of goal only. If we had succeeded in scoring many of the opportunities that were available to us, the team would have been able to score big numbers.”

• Firas Al Arabi: I am very happy with the confidence given to me by the coach, the management and the fans.

• We are moving forward with steady steps, and the team is performing well.

Firas numbers in Arabic with Sharjah

Number of matches: 103

Minutes played: 8459

Goals: 38

Yellow cards: 5

Red Cards: 0