Topic: Saudi Professional League 2023/2024 - page 365. (Read 119638 times)

Damac cannot be underestimated. In fact, one of the teams that was able to hold Al-hilal to a draw was Damac. And not only that. Damac also managed to hold Al-Taawoun and Al-Ahli to a draw. So I think the Al-ittihad vs Damac match will really be very interesting to watch. Because this match will really be a very fierce match. And I think Al-ittihad really has to be careful in this match. Because if they are careless, it could be that Al-ittihad will experience defeat. Damac who is the host will also definitely play better and with better confidence. Because we usually see a team always being more aggressive when they host. I'm really curious about this fight. In fact, I think it's possible that this match will end in a draw.

FC Damac currently in the good shape they even unbeatable in the last 4 matches in Saudi Pro League so Al Ittihad should be careful to them because FC Damac had a potention to make Al Ittihad to slipped today and Marcelo Gallardo as a new manager of Al Ittihad has hard task because he have to bringing this team to performing well again and previously Al Ittihad had poor records for away matches that since August Al Ittihad was never win anymore from away matches in Saudi Pro League so this is new challenge for Marcelo Gallardo to improved Al Ittihad records under him and Al Ittihad has odds @1.92 this proven they are the favourite and since Gallardo train this team last month Al Ittihad still unbeatable with gets 3 wins from 4 matches in all competitions so maybe Al Ittihad can resumes their winning streak today and win from FC Damac

Bounou is a good replacement for Stegen because he is a good goalkeeper with ability was verified in Sevilla and Morocco in World Cup 2022. He has a big advantage of having many seasons playing for Sevilla in La Liga. It can be his plus point against other goalkeepers who are under radar of Barcelona.

The challenge for this deal is will Al Hilal easily to let him go even with just a loan transfer for a second half of season?

They are competing with Al Nassr for Saudi Professional League title and Bounou is like one of their important players. He is so helpful for Al Hilal defense system and I actually don't think they will release him to Barcelona with whatever offer from Barcelona.

Al Hilal are not lack of star players so they will choose players are important with them than getting one or two more young or star players without much importance for their squad.

Barcelona will have to give Al Hilal a very good offer to bring Bounou back to La Liga. It's clearly that money is not a main concern of Al Hilal and Barcelona even can not compete with the Saudi Arabia club in aspect of money for player transfer and salary.

Maybe the scenario will go like that, but if we predict, is it possible that Al Hilal will let the goalkeeper go when the team's performance is in very good condition at the moment? I quite doubt that will happen unless Barcelona are willing to exchange for their star player, not a reserve player or a player whose performance is mediocre, and which star will they give up to get the Moroccan goalkeeper? I doubt this will happen and Barcelona will look for another goalkeeper who may be without a club like David de Gea because it is quite risky for Al Hilal to let go of their goalkeeper if they don't get a goalkeeper of the same or better quality.

Al Ittihan still stumbled and repeatedly struggled which in turn affected the results of the matches they played. One of the players they have brought in from Europe is Benzema, he has now scored 9 goals in the 13 games he has played in the SPL, but personally I am not satisfied with how he is playing. He's good but not as good as before, he's missed a lot of chances that could have been goals. I expect him to be at his best in this match, because he is the top scorer in his club at the moment, which means Al Ittihad will rely heavily on him to score.

Agreed, there will be no ending for the discussion between al hilal vs al nassr but the only ending if al hilal will obviously win the competition. Seeing its stats make me feel confidence if alhilal will become unbeatable starting from now till the end of season.
As long as mitrovic and savic will not be injured and everything is fine. The trophy shall be prepared to be taken by al hilal. Other team was not deserving to win it as they showed horrible performances.

Im all in ittihad. That was stupid enough if we are picking damac. Ittihad is still underperform but the quality of players owned by both are very different. Ittihad has so many good players while damac is just a shitty club int he saudi pro league.
People who have picked damax was obviously gambling on it. The winner can be seen easily. al hilal would be struggle against damac but it will win with narrow score.

This scenario has been happening many times.

Al Hilal's efforts with Barcelona make me suspect that there will be an exchange of players, for example Barcelona wants goalkeeper Al Hilal and Barcelona will give players to Al Hilal but this is just my suspicion because we all know that all clubs in Saudi Arabia always bring in players from Europe which is very rare. selling players to European clubs or maybe Barcelona is just looking for players at a cheaper price and doesn't care where the players come from.
If this really happens, it seems like Al Hilal will not let go of Yassine Bounou because this goalkeeper is very reliable at Al Hilal, who performs quite well in every match, so perhaps the news regarding this goalkeeper will just be a rumor.

Discussing Al Hilal and Al Nassr as strong candidates to win the Saudi Pro League title is never-ending, in fact it makes me tired of continuing to talk about these two clubs despite all that, I will start a new topic which is no less important because the Saudi Pro League does not only belong to Al Hilal and Al Nassr

today we will watch a match that is no less important, namely Damac FC vs Ittihad FC. This match is very important for Ittihad FC to improve their position in the points table, even so Damac is a club that is not easy to beat. In the last 5 matches Damac has not received a defeat and got 2 draws so Ittihad has to be careful in this match because Damac will be playing at home and Damac's home record is quite good. If Ittihad doesn't succeed in stealing these points he will be even further behind.

But for this season, what Al Nassr and Ronaldo really prioritize is the SPL because Al Nassr has so far been able to perform well in the SPL and several competitions when Ronaldo was included in the squad and was followed by several other European players.
It will be very impressive and could be a big achievement if Al Nssr is able to dominate and win the SPL title for this season because they have failed to win the SPL title for 4 seasons and this is the 5th season which they should be able to make into a winning season.

For Asia, maybe they can also get the title there, but focusing too much on more than two competitions will never give maximum results.

previously, Al Nassr could be Al Hilal strongest competitor, but unfortunately after the defeat at that time, Al Hilal was already very far at the top of the standings with a very large point difference so that Al Nassr was no longer Al Hilal competitor in the SPL, in fact there was not a single team that could beat Al Hilal and it does not seem interesting anymore because previously I hoped Al Nassr could beat Al Hilal so that the competition would continue and it was very interesting to watch but after this its a little less interesting because Al Hilal is certain to lead the SPL until the end of the season unless something happens serious problems with players such as injuries.

and other teams currently seem to have no hope of getting to the top of the standings and this time they can only compete for runners up to shift the position of Al Nassr and Al Ahli still have that chance.

Marc-André ter Stegen is injured in Barcelona and he is going to be out for a long time after the surgery he had recently, that's why Barcelona is trying to find an alternative goalkeeper and now it seems Yassine Bounou the goalkeeper of Al Hilal is linked to Barcelona. Usually, we see the Saudis trying to hire players from top European teams but now it seems Barcelona wants to hire an Arab goalkeeper.

There's something we call levels in the game of football, elite clubs do know their mates and these mediocre teams are just present for earning lesser points and they will not be in the competitive race title this season. Al Hilal have already set out the levels, they're ontop and currently unbeaten in the Saudi Pro League this season. There's no team that's taking the SPL title home except for Al Hilal this season. For a second, I thought Al Nassr was a threat, but it became crystal clear they're not even a threat for the club sitting first on the table.

I think nobody is even expecting to see any team other than Al Hilal win the Saudi League with the current situation they have and it seems their only competitor for this season is Al Nassr while I was expecting to see other teams like Al Ahli keep racing with Al Hilal but as you just said, the gap between Al Hilal an all other teams is huge and their fans are even waiting to see their team making sure about winning the league even before the season ends.

Maybe what our friend @onecall123 meant in his post, was describing the last 15 matches that Al Hilal played without defeat. and of course, being invincible is unrealistic. because, it doesn't describe something real. In fact, there are still at least 19 matches that must be played by all the teams competing in this League.

Well, in football it doesn't mean that the team that has more control over ball possession can be said to perform better. In that match, Al Nassr had no more opportunities than Al Hilal, in fact they had a big chance. Al Hilal with 6 big chances, while Al Nassr only had 1 big chance. Likewise with missed opportunities, Al Hilal far more than Al Nassr.
In this situation, I try to speak neutrally without taking sides with either team. In football, there are patterns, tactics and strategies. Previously, I predicted that Al Nassr would have more control over the match and yeah that proved to be the case. However, there is a scenario that could have been intentional by the Al Hilal coach. It could be, if they let that scenario happen, to look for loopholes in the system implemented by Luis Castro. I can refer as I say based on statistical, although what I say does not confirm anything and is just a personal assumption.

Well, returning to the point I said above, this competition actually still has a lot of matches left. and, there are many possibilities that could happen in the next matches. This does not mean that Al Nassr has lost the opportunity to compete for the league trophy this season.

I agree, if we are talking about 30 games, and only 15 left, 7 points is a huge different. I mean think about it, we are talking about a situation where they are just ending up with very few losses overall. in the past 15 games, they only had 2 draws, which means 4 points lost, if they do the same then they will win the title no matter what others do, Al-Nassr could win every game left, and they would still not catch up because the difference is 7 and not 4.

This means that they will need to adjust to the situation a bit differently, and I believe that we are going to need a situation that will be all that much enticing to watch. I think it should be quite important to remember that we need to end up with a simple title win for Al Hilal.

Right the match was more dominated by Al-Nassr and they know that they have thrown away a big chance to close the gap and make this season in the Saudi Professional League interesting again. But now I think there is some boredom coming up and SPL fans will hope that Al-Hilal gets some issues at some point, except for the Al-Hilal fans of course. I am disappointed that Ronaldo couldn't swing up himself to become the man of the match. No goals for him and 0-3, that's quite a bad day for a former world football player.

The win against Al Nassr was a big boost for Al Hilal on the run for their League title. Yes 7 points isn’t much of a gap but with about 15 matches to go, you see that this is a crazy one and it would take lots of consistency to maintain that top spot, Al Hilal looks pretty much a big building lol a team to bring down with their incredible form of just having 2 draws and no loss this season.

 Their force when they attack and thier composure when defending is one no team in the league has been able to have. Ronaldo needs this league trophy as it’ll be him conquering another league entirely and yes, he can only if Al Hilal slip a bit off the league, well he and the entire Al Nassr league shouldn't lose hope yet, cause the league is not yet close to the end so they got lots of time to fight their way to the top.

But I think, getting the title here in the Saudi Pro League doesn't seem to be their main target because after all, at least the players who end up playing here are because Ronaldo is here in the Saudi Pro League. Because yes, if for example at that time Ronaldo not accepted the offer from Al Nassr then it is very possible that the Saudi Pro League would not have succeeded in bringing in as many top European players as it does now. So yes, with that in mind then I believe getting the title is not their main target, and I think it is more about money and after that, they are ready to compete for the title or trophy here in the Saudi Pro League.

@Blitzboy resting Ronaldo is a proven strategy used even by Zidane and at his age he can’t play in all competitions and that’s something the fans need to understand and respect. Furthermore while they’re a much better side from the time I started watching them but I feel fresh transfers are needed to make them even stronger and thus I’m waiting to see whom they target next.

Given that CR7 and Mane skipped the contest, I understand why supporters were dissatisfied. Luis Castro made a good choice, though. Why risk top players when Al-Nassr is already in the AFC Champions League? Its a tactical move to rest the starters and play the backups. This technique refreshes the team for critical matches. However, the encounter revealed Al-Nassr's defensive deficiencies. Good thing the opponent wasnt strong. Although uninspiring, a draw is acceptable. How they'll improve when the stakes are bigger and important players are back on the pitch is intriguing.