Topic: Saudi Professional League 2023/2024 - page 13. (Read 86369 times)

I watched the first half of the King Cup of Champions between Al Ittihad vs Al Hilal before switching to watch go watch the UEFA Champions League but after the first half of the UCL, I had to revisit the game between the two Saudi clubs but to my surprise, Al Hilal were still able to get a win in their game against Al Ittihad even when they played the second half of the game with just 10 men. After Sergej Milinković-Savić was shown the red card in the 42nd minute of the game, I thought it'll give the home team the needed advantage to win the game but instead of winning, Al Hilal were able to score a late goal to claim the win and qualify to play in the final of the competition.

They are not idiots, they want to take the advantage from the current situation of Salah in Liverpool. As we know that Salah has a bad relationship with Klopp and Liverpool management lately. Not sure what the main problem to cause this bad situation. However, this increases the chance of Salah to leave Liverpool. Al Ittihad doesn't want to lose the chance of signing him. So, they showed their interest very early, they want to sign him although Salah still has 1 year contract with Liverpool.

If Al Ittihad waits for Salah one year more, Al Ittihad may be more difficult to sign him because there are many teams to try signing Salah with a free agent status. It makes sense because there is no need to pay transfer fees if the player is in a free agent status.

Well after the signing of Ronaldo, Al-Nassr got to the limelight and many started seeing them as one of the major competitors for the SPL. When last season ended and at the start of the new season, many saw them as a team that will be able to win the league especially after Ronaldo had spent a season.

 Well if wishes were horses, this team were off to a poor start and they struggled at the inception of this season but at a point they got to their feet. Al-Nassr also made some signings across Europe and as such they were seen as the major favorites for the league.

 ⁠Well they had a very bad start but at a point got their feet though it was a bot late, then got pretty late when they even weren’t able to maintain their good stand as a team. Al-Hilal has been the only superior team as they still remain unbeaten in all competitions and they have also won 2 trophies already.

 Al-Nassr still have a good attack but football is a teamwork and as such, the other team mates still need to have major composure for the team to have general success. So I think Al-Nassr board should try to strengthen especially the defense line of this Al-Nassr team so that next season will be a better one for them.

Al Hilal was finally able to qualify for the final phase of the King's Cup after defeating Al Ittihad with a score of 1-2, even though they played with 10 players, Jorge Jesus' team was able to do their job very well. In this match, Al Hilal had to work hard to win the match against Al Ittihad, because they played with 10 players. After Michael scored a goal in the 25th minute, one of Al Hilal's midfielders had to leave the field because he was given a red card. In the end, Al Ittihad dominated the match in the second half, they even equalized in the 67th minute. Unfortunately, again Malcom provided a good assist and was welcomed by Saud Abdulhamid which made it a victory for Al Hilal. Al Ittihad should have been able to take advantage of the momentum when Al Hilal played with 10 players, unfortunately Jorge Jesus' team played quite well, especially in defense. Plus, Marcelo Gallardo's team didn't have many opportunities to threaten Al Hilal's goal.

Well, Al Hilal is waiting for the team that will be its opponent in the King's Cup Final.
Tomorrow, Al Nassr will play a match against Al Khaleej. one of these teams will advance to the final round to meet Al Hilal. Well, let's just wait for the results even though on paper Al Nassr is the favorite to meet Al Hilal in the King's Cup Final match. However, there may be surprises, so let's wait for the results of the Al Nassr vs Al Khaleej match.

Talisca got injured and ended his season, obviously they were already not leading the league and Al Hilal definitely won the league before that so I feel like we should probably consider the fact that they need even more players. I think it is quite obvious to say that we are going to end up with some defensive increases in that team, and a better goalkeeper.

Last season they ended up getting more offensive players and that worked, their offense is amazing and they score good amount of goals but when we are talking about defense, they still need some help.

So, getting a super famous centre back and a great goalkeeper would allow them to actually win the league title next season as well. This won't be all that easy but it would be quite possible to make it work.

Al Itihad owners are idiots or what? I read yesterday some news about them going to buy Salah from Liverpool. Well that is nothing wrong with that, but when we know he only left 1 year  in the contract with Liverpool why are you not gonna wait one more year and avoid to pay a ton of money for him?

Al Nassr already failed to compete with Al Hilal for Saudi Professional League long before Talisca got his injury. Main reasons are bad performances in early of seasons with some shocked defeats. After that, Al Nassr tried a lot to come back but they simply are weaker than Al Hilal and lost 6 points in two direct matches with the competitor. Even 6 direct points are enough for Al Nassr to lose the league trophy to Al Hilal.

Other bad results recently only make this season looks worse for Al Nassr but a failed season is a failed season, not big difference in my opinion.

So far Ronaldo and Talisca are al Nassr top scorers, before talisca was injured, of course Al Nassr at that time had fallen behind Al Hillal at the top of the SPL standings, but indeed the injury of Talisca has made Al Nassr performance drop very drastically, especially Ronaldo, who is also often absent, of course, makes it very difficult for Al Nassr to compete with Al Hillal this season,  Al Nassr's often inconsistent performance certainly makes Al Hillal easily win the SPL this season without any pressure from other teams in the SPL, for now Talisca's injury does make Ronaldo does not have the right duo when in attack while Mane is certainly a player who is a little selfish at this time in sharing goal opportunities with other players.

Al Nassr have lost two chances to win the championship trophy this season namely in the league and also the Asian champions, Al Nassr's only hope to win the championship trophy this season is only in the Saudi Kin Cup competition, but it looks the Saudi King Cup will also be difficult for them to get later, because they may face Al Hillal in the final round later,  So far Al Nassr will face Al Khaleej in the semifinals, while Al Hillal must destroy Al Ittihad in the semifinals to get a ticket to the final, looking at the teams that advance to the semifinals at this time, of course, the chances of Al Hillal and Al Nassr are very big to reach the final of the King of Saudi Arabia this season.

Al-Ettifaq only drew 2-2 last week against Al-Raed and clearly this was not a good result for them. Previously they also got a draw against Al-Wehda and in the last 5 matches they were only able to achieve 1 win. In fact, if only they had not experienced setbacks in the past month then they would definitely have been able to shift Al-Ittihad's position, but it seems that it is not going well so they have to be satisfied with sitting in 6th position in the standings.

Apart from that, Al-Ettifaq could finish in 10th position in the standings considering that the difference in points from the teams below is not that far. One or more defeats puts Al-Ettifaq in danger and the investment they made in bringing in European players will likely be in vain if they end up finishing in that position. Gerrard must close this season with better results and improve everything to be more convincing.

Talisca's contribution to Al-Nassr is as great as the contribution of Cristiano Ronaldo and Mane to this club. And actually, after Talisca was injured, we can see that Al-Nassr experienced a slight decline. Because usually Talisca and Cristiano Ronaldo can always work well together in the attack line. And this time this cannot be done because Talisca is still injured and there are rumors that she could even be absent until the end of the season. And this is clearly detrimental to Al-Nassr. But fortunately Al-Nassr is now not in a position to catch the top of the standings. because it is certain that Al-hilal will win the title in the current SPL.

Though Al Nassr was or still is a strong team. But how did Al Nassr lose to Al Hilal in this event. It's a really big shame for Ronaldo. He wanted to bring home all the cups in Asia to Al Nassr. In that direction, Christian Ronaldo has failed in this season. Al Hilal performance in this season was worth watching.

I have also done this calculation. Al Nassr and Al Khaleej are more likely to reach the final. Even if that happens, Ronaldo's quality is saved in this journey.

The SPL is not the middling league it used to be. It is now a league that comes after the best leagues in the world, where elite teams compete. They are clearly the best league in the Asian region. Ronaldo is there, Benzema, Neymar are there. Ronaldo is still very good and proves to us why he is still at the top of the world. Ronaldo is a world brand and as long as this brand plays in the SPL, the SPL will continue to be a valuable league.

I remember when Ronaldo joined Al Nassr he said he wanted to win all the possible trophies in Asia but he failed because Al Nassr couldn't want Al Hilal even for once during this season os far and they lost tyhe games aginst Al Hilal in all the games they had against this team. Al Nassr is still far from Al Hilal in the Saudi League while Al Hilal already won the season before it ends.
The only thing Al Nassr can get is the King of Champions in Saudi where they have to play against Al Khaleej in the semi-final game.
Based on recent performance from these two teams I can say there is a much higher chance for Al Nassr to beat Al Khaleej and be in the final match.  

AI Nassr was not successful from day one, finding path to push through this season. Cristiano Ronaldo goals is simply one of the forcing magnitude that skyrocketed Al Nassr to reach significant stages in football and hitting on different levels. Al Nassr form should not be comparable to the outstanding form of Al Hilal. Its been really one of the tough season for the Knights of Najd. Al Hilal have been hitting on every different measures, emerging to become one of the very best team this season.

Yes, this season Al Nasr got off to a bad start in the Saudi Arabian League. Even though at the start of the season many speculated that Al Nasr would definitely not be defeated by any team. Because as we know, in the previous transfer market, Al Nasr recruited many top players from Europe. That is why many people think that no team can compete with Al Nasr in the Saudi Arabian League. However, the reality is very far from what was expected. The reason is that at the start of the season Al Nasr experienced several defeats. So until now Al Nasr's performance is actually still not good. Because even against weak teams, sometimes Al Nasr has a little difficulty.

However, when talking about Al Hilal, this season there is no need to doubt its performance. Because until now Al Hilal has never lost to any team. Even though the star player, Neymar, is still injured to this day. However, Al Hilal's performance remains consistent and can always win every match in the Saudi Arabian League. So it is not surprising that now Al Hilal is certain to win the Saudi Arabian League.

And about Ronaldo, Talisca and Mane. In my opinion, their performance was very good at Al Nasr. Because as you said, they are very good scorers. But still, even though the three of them play very well and can score lots of goals, if their other teammates play less well, Al Nasr will certainly not succeed in becoming a club that dominates Saudi Arabia like Al Hilal. So in essence, equal distribution of player quality is very important for Al Nasr at this time.

Al-Hilal has already demonstrated that it will drag everything it can, both regionally and globally. They have everything it takes to be the best in everything they compete in and I haven't seen something like that in a long time.

Early defeats at the season beginning cost them a lot and they tried to come back with a long impressive streak but two direct defeats under Al-Hilal knock them down finally. Recent bad results are only consequences when they already official lost the Saudi Professional League title competition to Al-Hilal and no longer have clear motivation to continue their fight.

Generally Al-Nassr have very good attacking system and their biggest weakness is from their defense system. Ronaldo, Mane, Talisca, Ótavio, Brozovic can contribute so good for their attacking system but their defense system is weak. It causes them many conceded goals and we can in many matches when Al-Nassr wins, they still get many conceded goals.

To compete with Al-Hilal next season, Al-Nassr must improve their defense system in a next transfer season. It is most important task for them to complete before return to competition with Al-Hilal.

Al-Nassr weren't successful in the beginning of the season and they suffered four defeats after all costing them the title. Al-Hilal in the other hand were very successful and strong at a point that no Saudi Arabia team were able to defeat them and best thing they can do is getting a draw with them, this happened only twice by the way.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane in a lesser degree were the firepower of the team but let's not forget also Talisca who scored 16 goals so far, more than Mane but way behind Cristiano Ronaldo who has the unbeaten record.

This SPL becomes very interesting because there are certain teams that wouldn't give up so easily. Al Nassr have the best players when it comes to winning matches but they do actually face tough times with Al Hilal that doesn't give them breathing room for lifting major titles this season. Al Nassr was fortunate enough to win the Saudi Pro League title this season but based on the incredible performance of Al Hilal, they back down. Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mané are the pillars behind the successful run of Al Nassr this season. They've beaten every challenging team although they've also recorded defeats on their end this season.

In theory, Al Hilal should win against Al Ittihad. But we don't know if there is a surprise, it is not impossible if Al Hilal is defeated because Al Hilal has no main striker now. Mitrovic is injured for a long time, Al Hilal has no main machine goal now. It is also the reason why they are eliminated in AFC champion league. So, the current condition of Al Hilal isn't very good, their performance is decreasing due to the injury of Mitrovic.

Even Al Hilal will play against Al Nassr in the final round, I think Al Nassr has a bettet chance to win now. Al Nassr can use their main lineup, there is 1 key player only who will be unavailable (Talisca). Other main players will be ready to play against Al Nassr. I think it is the right time for Ronaldo to beat Al Hilal and won the title.