FIFA Arab Cup 2021™ preview: Analysis process and expectations

All of the participating teams will line up in the group stage, which kicks off on 30 November, with the top two sides from each group progressing to the knockout rounds. The final will be played at the state-of-the-art Al Bayt Stadium on 18 December.

As part of FIFA's enhanced commitment to grow the game across the world, our team of technical experts will be pitchside at every match to identify, explore and showcase the tactical trends that emerge as the competition unfolds. The insights identified by the team will be brought to life through video analysis, data-driven visuals and tactical interviews as we highlight the very best of the match action with the use of our defined football terminology.

All of the insights provided by our experts will be available to users via the recently launched FIFA Training Centre as a part of our quest to help develop coaching, tactical evolution and analysis across the global game.

The Technical Study Group for the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 is chaired by the FIFA Chief of Global Football Development, Arsène Wenger, and led by Ulf Schott and Chris Loxston. Our technical experts, performance analysts and data scientists will examine all aspects of the on-field action, whilst the football content team will work closely with all stakeholders to bring the knowledge and expertise together and share it with a view to promoting the development of the game across the world. 

Technical analysis team: Arsène Wenger (Chief of Global Football Development and Chairman of the Technical Study Group), Ulf Schott (Head of High Performance), Chris Loxston (Group Leader Football Performance Analysis & Insights), Steve McClaren (Technical Expert), Michel Sablon (Technical Expert), Jürgen Klinsmann (Technical Expert), Dwight Yorke (Technical Expert), Pascal Zuberbühler (Senior Football & Goalkeeping Expert), Marc Ziegler (Technical Expert Goalkeeping), Arne Barez (Football Content Manager), Lisa Fallon (Football Content Creator), Harry Lowe (Football Performance Analyst), Jeremy Chor (Football Performance Analyst), Juan Pablo Busso (Football Data Scientist), Felix Borutta (Football Data Scientist), Sirus Saberi (Football Data Engineer), Jaeson Rosenfeld (High Performance Advisor)

Michel Sablon is a highly respected technical expert within world football. After calling time on a professional career that saw him ply his trade for a number of clubs in his native Belgium, Sablon went on to become assistant coach of the Belgium senior national team during a spell in which the Red Devils qualified for three consecutive editions of the FIFA World Cup™.

In 2001, Sablon was appointed as technical director at the Belgian FA, a position he held until 2012. He engineered a footballing revolution in the country which propelled the national team from 50^th place in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking to the coveted top spot.

Sablon is currently based in the Middle East, where he serves as a FIFA instructor for the development of technical directors in Southeast Asia. He has also enjoyed previous stints as technical director at the Football Association of Singapore and the United Arab Emirates Football Association.

Boasting impressive knowledge of the game in the Arab world, Sablon recognises the significance of the upcoming tournament to the region. "The great quality that’ll be on show will benefit the football community here because people will get to watch and attend the games and have the opportunity to see the players and will ultimately compare what they see to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia."

Sablon is particularly interested in monitoring the development of the playing styles adopted by the participating teams, both in and out of possession. There has been a shift in the national teams’ tactical approaches and the Belgian believes that the respective head coaches have had a major influence in this regard.

"There are many European coaches within Arab football and they bring their knowledge of the game with them and instil their playing styles in the region's teams. Carlos Queiroz, who's a fantastic coach and one of the best in world football, represents a fine example of this."

"When you look at the results that Egypt have achieved and their playing style as a team that looks to dominate games, you can see exactly how he's influenced their system and convinced the players that his ideas will deliver unprecedented success."

Amongst the roles he has occupied during his career, Queiroz has had two spells as head coach of the Portugal national team and twice served as assistant coach to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, whilst he also occupied the managerial hotseat at Real Madrid. Following his appointment as head coach of the Egypt national team in September, there is no shortage of interest to see the impact he has on a side that boasts immense potential.

Elsewhere, the Qatar national team has also made big strides under the guidance of their Spanish head coach, Félix Sánchez, who was promoted to his role with the senior team in 2017. Sablon believes that Qatar, who will take their place at next year’s FIFA World Cup as tournament hosts, are another side with a realistic chance of winning the forthcoming edition of the FIFA Arab Cup.

The FIFA Arab Cup 2021 hosts triumphed in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, which was staged in the United Arab Emirates, where the Qataris ran out 3-1 winners over Japan in the final played in front of 36,776 spectators in Abu Dhabi. Goals from Almoez Ali, Abdulaziz Hatem and Akram Afif crowned a scintillating tournament campaign for Qatar, which was lauded as "an inspiration for all Asian teams to scale even greater heights", by AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa.

Qatar plundered an impressive 19 goals in their seven outings at that tournament and their possession-based attacking blueprint was a testament to Sánchez's grounding at FC Barcelona’s famed academy. Intricate triangular passing patterns complemented by rotating forward players were trademarks of Sánchez’s system, but the team’s most identifiable hallmark was their incredible efficiency in front of goal. Indeed, the Qataris' shot conversion rate of 2.7 compared favourably to the tournament average of 7.1.

In this tournament, Qatar have been handed the task of navigating their way out of Group A, which contains opponents led by European coaches: Bahrain (Portugal’s Hélio Sousa), Iraq (Dutchman Dick Advocaat) and Oman (Branko Ivanković of Croatia). 

"All of the famous European coaches will bring the trends within modern football to the tournament and that's a real positive. It’ll be part of the learning process to make the teams, supporters, coaches and all those involved in football aware that things are changing. The FIFA Arab Cup 2021 will also prove that the football landscape in this region is also changing," Sablon added.

The tournament will also feature a strong contingent of local coaching talent, with Mondher Kebaier (Tunisia) and Hussein Ammouta (Morocco) to lead their native countries, whilst former Algeria international Madjid Bougherra was appointed head coach of his national team in 2020. 

Given that the participating teams find themselves at different stages of their development journey, Sablon believes that success will mean different things to the various teams, with some sides looking to continue their progress, whilst others harbour ambitions of securing the tournament crown.

"I think that Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are the favourites to win it, but Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia also come into the tournament in good form."

In terms of defensive structures, Sablon highlighted that the region's national teams do not often adopt a high press, as we saw at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. "Some of the region’s national teams aren’t used to applying a high press. When you watch the games, the teams tend to build up slowly and often set up in low and mid-blocks."

Adopting a collective high press was a tactic rarely seen amongst the teams involved at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, although eventual winners Qatar were outliers in this regard. They were the most inclined of all of the teams to exert sustained pressure on opposition defenders, whilst Oman and Iran both applied high presses when they went head-to-head.

Sablon also noted that, "The CAF teams are perhaps able to deal with a high press better because they're used to coming up against it, but it could represent an interesting area for analysis, particularly given the influence of the many European coaches who recognise these countries' considerable footballing potential."

With the participating teams traditionally inclined to build play up slowly and patiently in their own halves due to the opposition’s reluctance to apply a high press in this area of the pitch, Sablon suggests that the teams at this tournament could seek to dominate games by increasing the tempo and intent of their attacking play. He believes that this could see teams set up with more attacking players in the opposition’s half during the build-up phase. 

The period of time that teams spend building up the play and the areas of the pitch in which they do so will be a key focus of the analysis performed by our team in Doha. "The teams' attack-minded set-ups, which involve them fielding two or three strikers and as many as two attacking midfielders, only one defensive midfielder and marauding full-backs, could represent a significant development and more goals."

The 51 games played at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup yielded 130 goals; 89 from open play with 23 coming from crosses and 20 the result of forward passes, either through-balls or balls over the defence.

However, 32% of the total goals scored at the tournament came from set pieces compared to 35% at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. In what represented an unusual trend, more goals were scored from direct free kicks (nine) than indirect free kicks, with Qatar centre-back, Bassam Alwari, weighing in with two such goals. 

Despite the fact that the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 is not scheduled during a recognised international window in the football calendar, there is great anticipation and high hopes in terms of the standards, quality and excitement that the tournament will bring to the region.

The action gets underway on 30 November, with four group-stage games taking place on the opening day.