Steven Gerrard faces calls to resign from Saudi job after shock defeat and Liverpool admission

Steven Gerrard's Al-Ettifaq reign reached an all-time low as his team exited the King Cup at the hands of a second-tier side on Wednesday. The Liverpool legend's team was eliminated by Al-Jabalain, which finished in eighth place in the second division last season.

Gerrard is facing calls to resign by some fans of the club as well as pundits, with Al-Ettifaq currently win-less in the Saudi Pro League since September 14. Al-Ettifaq won all of its opening three matches to start the season, but has picked up just two points from the last five matches to drop to 10th position in the standings.

Gerrard is 16 months into a four-year contract worth $19.7million each year but some supporters of the club are keen to see him replaced. Following a 1-1 draw with Al Feiha last weekend, a fan posted on social media, as reported by the Daily Mail: "By God, Gerrard is making fun of himself. I have never seen a failed coach who has a lot of excellent names and doesn't know how to employ them properly."

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Gerrard has been criticized for his team selections throughout the season, and one fan earlier this month wrote: "I was very optimistic before the match, but when I saw the lineup, I washed my hands of it. In every match, there is confusion and changing of names. It has confused me and all the experts about how to draw the lineup that Mr. Gerrard has been in for seven or eight rounds so far.

"He has been around since last season and he doesn't know how to put together a lineup." That criticism was levelled at Gerrard again after he left star striker Moussa Dembele out of the team for the surprise cup defeat by Al-Jabalain.

Saudi-based pundit Nasser Al-Jedaie said that the negatives of Gerrard's on-field impact outweigh the positives of having him on board to boost the club's profile. He said: "Gerrard served Al-Ettifaq outside the field, but there are no results for the technical work. What is the project that Gerrard is leading?" Sports journalist Turki Al-Ajmah, meanwhile, described the situation as "sad" and called for Gerrard to step down.

All of this comes after Gerrard openly admitted he organizes Al-Ettifaq's training sessions around Liverpool's matches. He told The Redmen TV, he said: "John [Achterberg, goalkeeping coach] and I have got more than one eye on it. We put all our schedule around the Liverpool games. The players are onto me now; we’ve been training at 9 or 10 at night."