Yes, this season, Al Ittihad will most likely not be able to rise again to 4th place. The reason is that currently Al Ittihad has a 4 point difference with Al Taawon who is in 4th place in the Saudi Arabian League. Even though the difference is not too big, if for example Al Taawon can win this week's match against Al Feiha, then Al Ittihad will no longer be able to catch Al Taawon in terms of points. Although in the remainder of this season Al Ittihad was able to wipe out all matches with a win. Apart from that, I don't think Al Ittihad will be able to wipe out all the remaining matches with a win. The reason is that in Al Ittihad's last match this season they will face Al Nasr which will most likely make it difficult for Al Ittihad to win the match.
So, if for example this prediction is correct, then Al Ittihad will certainly only finish in 5th place in the Saudi Arabian League. Apart from that, initially I personally thought that Al Ittihad would not experience a setback like now, because in the transfer market last season, Al Ittihad was able to bring in quite good players, such as Benzema. Then last season, Al Ittihad was able to become champions of the Saudi Arabian League. However, it turns out that Al Ittihad is much worse than last season. In essence, what I see is that the players and coaches at Al Ittihad don't have good chemistry. Because of the big example, we already know that Benzema always has problems with the Al Ittihad coach. And this is clear evidence that the chemistry between Al Ittihad players and their coach is not good. So for that reason, I am not surprised that Al Ittihad's performance is poor this season.
And maybe it's true, next season Al Ittihad must be able to fix all these problems, because if it continues like this, Al Ittihad will definitely continue to be left behind by its rival teams, Al Nasr and Al Hilal.
This season has been one challenging one for Al-Ittihad and though they have still struggled to come out to battle for top 4 as they remain in 5th place. The point gap between them and 4th place Al-Taawon is looking pretty small but when you check the remaining fixtures of the season, you’ll understand why it could be a pretty difficult challenge for Al-Ittihad. Al-Taawon just needs 3 points and they’ll be fully confirmed to finish 4th place this seaso.
You can say this because Al-Ittihad still have Al-Nassr later this season which a draw or loss there means they will sure be finishing in 5th place this season. Al-Nassr are a stronger team compared to Al-Ittihad who have been struggling to find their feet since the beginning of the season. This struggle affected them real bad and now they’re faving the consequences which is to finish in 5th place. A lot was expected from them especially after winning the league and also getting Benzema to the club and Kante, expectations were high but I feel those expectations have now been cut short.
You can say the players and the coach aren’t relating well and that alone is more than enough reason for the team to struggl. To the new season, the board needs to come in and fix things up else this team will probably ve suffering more and mot be able to compete amongst the other clubs in the league. The SPL is now getting competitive and no team should be left behind in terms of performance and I feel Al-Ittihad board should take this to serious consideration.