Lamouchi leaves Sassi out of Tunisia World Cup squad and the message is brutal. Experience means nothing if the manager does not trust you.
Ferjani Sassi has 101 caps. He has been a mainstay in the Tunisia midfield for years. Yassine Meriah has 95 appearances. He was supposed to anchor the defense. Both are out. Sabri Lamouchi looked at two players with nearly two hundred international games between them and decided they were not what he needed. That takes cold nerve. He did not flinch.
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Lamouchi took over in January. He immediately left both players out of his first two friendlies against Haiti and Canada. That was the warning shot. Nobody wanted to believe it. Now the World Cup squad is out and the warning was real. Sassi and Meriah will watch from home.
The squad is not short on intrigue. Rani Khedira is in. His brother Sami won the World Cup with Germany in 2014. Rani switched his nationality in March and now he is heading to the biggest tournament on earth wearing Tunisia’s colors. Burnley’s Hannibal Mejbri made the cut. Norwich City’s Anis Ben Slimane is in. Paris Saint-Germain forward Khalil Ayari got the call despite never playing a minute for the PSG first team. Lamouchi is betting on youth and hunger over fading legs.
Tunisia open against Sweden on June 15. Then Japan. Then the Netherlands. Group F is no joke. Lamouchi has ripped up the old guard and built something new. Sassi and Meriah are the price. Whether the gamble pays off or blows up in his face will play out on the world stage.
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