Topic: Saudi Professional League 2023/2024 - page 415. (Read 112533 times)

It would be strange if he didn't deserve a place in the main squad. In his team, he is a serious striker who is unlikely to be on the bench for long. Moreover, he is not paid huge money to rest on the substitutes' bench. For his age, he is performing excellently and his numbers are very slowly declining

We know very well that Benzema is no longer young, but he still has good stamina. although much different in terms of performance when he was younger. but now, he is much more established.

Talking about the Al Taawoun vs Al Ittihad match, Benzema actually played very well. In fact, he scored one goal in that match.  Likewise, if we refer to match statistics, Al Ittihad actually played quite well.  they had 8 shots on target, 3 big chances.  Unfortunately, only one opportunity was converted into a goal.
Well, for me, Al Iithad should have been able to beat Al Taawoun in that match. Even though they played as an away team, in terms of player depth, Al Ittihad was much better. So, why are the results obtained by Al Ittihad in their last few matches not optimal?

IMO, the answer is the coach. Since Benzema suffered an injury, Nuno Santo is more inclined to change his pattern and system. in the Al Taawoun match, he preferred a 4-4-2 pattern. Even though statistically they didn't play badly, this pattern was not efficient given the depth of the Al Ittihad team. If Nonu Santo does not improve and change his pattern, then they will have difficulty playing match after match, especially when they meet equally strong teams. So, let's see what the Al Ittihad coach will do in the next match.
Tomorrow, Al Ittihad will host Al Jawiya in the AFC Champions League. let's see how Nuno Santo brings his team to win this match.

When you get 25 year old, near his prime type of defender missing the most important games, your defense will obviously lack. They didn't even probably believe that they were able to get someone so young on his prime and can defend so well, and Ibanez is no joke neither he is a great defender but he can't do it all by himself, one defender that is decent is not enough for the team, they need to do better. I hope that we could see him do wonders but that doesn't mean that we are going to end up with anything that would be troublesome for them.

The best thing to do right now would be making sure that we end up with something that would be a bit more midfield and passing oriented and not offense oriented. When you focus too much on trying to score, you end up losing the ball, they attack quickly so they do not hold the ball for too long and that gives the other team a chance to end up attacking too, which results badly for them since their defense is nto that good.

He would have done more if he was younger but still this are some impressive results from him even at such an old age. He will be the top striker for sure in the league if he continues like this. Ronaldo was the main factor today in the win today and moved his team up in the league.

Did Lens have a choice back then? I can't remember whether his contract would have expired the next season or what the exact circumstances of this transfer were, but Lens is a small club that probably has to evaluate the pro and contra of these transfers more than other clubs. But it is not like they allowed a real superstar to leave them. He was really good for Lens and made a considerable contribution to their strong season, but I am sure they have had some intense discussions about how to proceed with him and whether they could need the money. That is the hamster wheel financially weaker clubs will be in forever. Once they have a good player, they won't have the money to keep him.

Cristiano Ronaldo was a perfect player years ago when he was playing in Real Madrid and he was younger but he is not in a good mood anymore and this Ronaldo we see in the Saudi League is far from what we were hoping to see.
In fact, I think if Ronaldo was in the good form like his younger days, we could guarantee Al Nassr winning the title like years ago when he was younger.

Well Lens let him go and they are suffering right now in Ligue 1, sitting in the relegation zone.. I agree Cristiano Ronaldo is doing pretty well regarding his age. Al-Nassr are third for the moment in the ranking after Al-Hilal of course and Al-Taawoun, both these teams are doing impressive stuff especially Al-Taawoun since the names they have cannot be compared with the other teams.

I think it's about money, then at least it would be easy for them to leave. After all, playing at Lens also does not make Seko Fofana have a guaranteed good career from season to season, considering his age which may be close to entering the age of 30 maybe in the next two years . Moreover, playing at Al Nassr is also not bad at all for Seko Fofana because anyway, at this moment Seko Fofana can play with great players in the world like Ronaldo off course . But regarding Ronaldo who is still productive in making goals at this moment, then of course it is also a good performance for Ronaldo . Because yes, in old age at least his performance will slowly decline but for Ronaldo, it seems that he can still maintain his stability so far.

It cannot be denied that sooner or later increasing age becomes a frightening threat to the quality of a player, and Benzema is no exception. Of course, we will not forget his performance while still playing for Real Madrid, so that he became the best player by winning the Ballon D'or. However, I will not blame Benzema in the Al Ittihad versus Al Tawoon match, because after all, every player has the potential to make mistakes, including Benzema.

There are still 24 matches left in the SPL, and anything is still possible. It is certainly very difficult for the clubs at the top of the standings to remain consistent by sweeping 24 matches with a win. So I think the standings will continue to change every week, the opportunity for Al Ittihad to win a trophy is still open.

Cristiano having a very good run right now, with goals in Portugal and in Alnassr in consecutive games, nice to see him replenish of faith, lets see how much time he can carry this fit.

When i see the alnassr, i cant believe how Lens let go Seko Fofana, he was their key player, and he is a great player.

What actions do you expect from Al-Hilal? What should they think about? I think in deals of this size/level, all options (including serious injury) should be covered. The text of the contract is not available to us, so we can only guess what will happen next. Previously, such injuries (especially at that age) automatically meant the end of a career, now medicine has advanced far, but knowing Neymar, I’m not at all sure that we will see him on the field again (at least in adequate shape).

Karim's prime age already passed. People could expect him to deliver like what he used to be but his age will never lie about his condition right now. Even though karim has a very good stamina but it must be said that if his age makes him looks like even slower than before. Im seeing draw as a common thing in the football. It sounds bad for a team who has spent a lot of money to build its club gets draw against weaker team compared with ittihad. The situation is giving more advantage to the al hilal. We do know that if al ittihad is trying to compete for the SPL trophy this season but it's not lucky enough during the game. Many shoos being made but onla few was on target.

Al ittihad players shall have learned about how to shoot properly. That's it. I can only hope that if al ittihad will solve its problem as soon as possible. The competition is still running and the club needs to wake up again.

There has been a decline in Benzema's performances as he gets older, but despite his decline, it's not significant in the sense that his performance is still within standard limits and he still deserves to be in the main squad.
We also can't always expect him to perform well forever, because ups and downs in performance are a certainty in football. Especially when age eats into his performance from time to time, he also has more injuries now, although the injury is relatively mild but it is still a bad sign for him.

We have to look back at the initial goal of the SPL clubs recruiting European star players, including in this case Al Hilal, they want to instantly boost the image of the SPL on the world football stage. Al Hilal management must be very aware of the history of injuries experienced by Neymar while playing for PSG or Barcelona before, I think the decision to recruit him was full of calculations and they were prepared for all the risks, including injury. Al Hilal seems to ignore this because the most important thing for them is the status of star players. Regarding large expenses in the form of salaries that do not match the contribution made, that is not a big problem for them at the moment.

Al Hilal will be happy to accept the compensation provided by FIFA, but of course they have much more than that. In the upcoming transfer market, Al Hilal will again be hunting for star players, to make up for Neymar absence, I think Al Hilal still has a lot of money to spend on the transfer market.

Al hilal is fine without him but the main problem is the money used to sign neymar will be useless caused by he was always being injury. I think that al hilal shall think about neymar. Al hilal will be getting compensation from FIFA regarding injury that happened with neymar but that's not enough caused by neymar has a very big salary. It's a loss for al hilal caused by neymar was a very important player being recruited by paying a lot of money to the PSG. Im very disappoint to hear how neymar was getting ACL injury again.
It's a very bad news to hear yesterday. I thought that if al hilal must be doing something. The international break was destroying neymar's career in SPL. It's caused by he got serious injury that was ruining his career for almost a year starting from this time.

Al Hilal performed very well and almost couldn't beat Al Khaleej but in the 30th minute Mitrović managed to get 1 score which gave Al Hilal victory until the end of the match but even though they won I was a little dissatisfied with the score produced by Al Hilal only able to score 1 score Even though Al Khaleej is not a strong club for Al Hilal.
For Al Nasr who will compete against Damac FC, it is very likely that Al Nasr will win with a score of more than 2 because Damac FC is a very weak club in this Saudi pro league and my belief is to choose to bet on -2 because at least they will score 3 goals and Damac will the team scored.

Karim Benzema before he joined Al-Ittihad was one of the most prolific strikers not just in Spain but also in Europe when he was with his former club Real Madrid but since he joined Al-Ittihad during the summer transfer window, he's not been too decisive in games like the Benzema we all know at Real Madrid.
He scored an own goal to bring Al-Taawoun to level with with his club Al-Ittihad four minutes later after putting them in front and that was the the only two goals in the game as it ended in a 1-1 draw.

Benzema was the unluckiest player in the Al Ittihad versus Al Tawoon match, but this mistake was still understandable even though Al Ittihad had to be willing to share the points. Yes, Al Hilal dominated even without Neymar, and indeed Al Khaleej was not a very tough opponent for them. Furthermore, Al Ittihad has the opportunity to be moved by Al Nassr and Al Ahli from third place in the SPL standings, of course with the condition that Al Nassr must win against Damac FC, and Al Ahli must also win against Al Wahda, i think on paper Al Nassr and Al Ahli can do it easily.

In other matches, if Al Ettifaq can get full points against Al Riyadh and can score more than three goals, then Al Ittihad position will also be shifted again by Steven Gerrard squad. The SPL standings have become very competitive, I think this is reflected until the end of the season.

SPL picks my interest because they have added European players to the league. Its competitive to watch players portraying their best performance on the pitch. Al Taawon versus Al Ittihad resulted in a 1-1 draw. It was a funny moment to watch Karim Benzema giving Al Ittihad the lead in minutes of first half and also the one that scored an own goal to level the scoresheet in the game. The visitors tried everything within their reach to net another but with the strong defending wall of Al Taawon reciprocated and denied them such chances.

Al Ahli, one of the teams with the highest player investment in Saudi football, had undergone a complete change, but when the new defensive duo of Ibanez and Merih failed to adapt to Jaisse's overly offensive system, we saw the team having major problems defensively in the next four games and despite Merih's withdrawal, the team's inconsistencies in terms of results continued due to failures in the support area. Al Wahda are coached by Donis, an experienced coach who knows this league very well, while Ighalo, who peaked with his Al Hilal performance, has made up for many flaws with five goals since his arrival; they have made further progress, moving away from last year's structure where Fajr was used as a false 9 many times. I expect Al Wahda, who have scored in seven of their last eight games, to utilize their effectiveness out wide. Mahrez, Kessie and Maximin are big threats for Al Ahli. We are expecting a tough match in terms of competition.