Al-Hilal's Victory Masks Underlying Issues, Warns Nasser Al-Shamrani

Nasser Al-Shamrani did not join the celebrations.

While Al-Hilal opened their Roshn League campaign with a 4-2 win over Al-Faisaly, the club legend warned that the scoreline hid problems that have not gone away. For him, “the Boss” looked far below what its star-studded squad should be producing.

Speaking on the “Dawrina Ghair” programme, Al-Shamrani argued that the performance belonged to the same worrying pattern of recent weeks. The same errors. The same fragility. And now, the same questions for Simone Inzaghi and his staff.

Bono the saviour, Koulibaly under the spotlight

If Al-Hilal walked away with three points, Al-Shamrani was clear about who deserved special credit: Yassine Bono.

The Moroccan goalkeeper, he said, made a “huge” difference in limiting the damage against Al-Faisaly. His saves, his presence, his timing – all of it, in Al-Shamrani’s eyes, covered up cracks that should alarm a team with title ambitions.

“Bono’s beauties are too much for Inzaghi,” Al-Shamrani remarked, pointing to how often the keeper drags Al-Hilal out of trouble. With a goalkeeper of that calibre, he suggested, the team enjoys a bigger margin for error than it deserves.

The criticism did not stop at the back line as a unit. Al-Shamrani also singled out Kalidou Koulibaly as a central piece in Inzaghi’s system. The Senegalese defender’s level, he explained, cannot be judged in isolation. His performance radiates through the entire side, especially in a team that expects to dominate and needs rock-solid defensive stability to sustain a title push.

When Koulibaly is not fully secure, the rest of the structure feels it.

Same result, same mistakes

Al-Hilal scored four, won by two, and still failed to convince one of their greatest former players.

For Al-Shamrani, the big victory did not bring any real tactical evolution. He insisted the team “offered nothing new” from a technical standpoint. The patterns that have dogged them under Inzaghi, he argued, were still there, just better disguised by clinical finishing and an outstanding goalkeeper.

The warning was blunt: the result must not become a shield against criticism. Wins like this, he suggested, can be dangerous if they encourage complacency about what is actually happening on the pitch.

Al-Shamrani stressed that Al-Hilal have to correct these flaws quickly. This Roshn League season will be unforgiving. Against stronger opponents, the same mistakes that Al-Faisaly could not fully punish might prove decisive, no matter how many victories the team racks up early on.

For Inzaghi, the message is clear. The campaign has started with the right numbers on the scoreboard, but the debate around performance has begun just as fast. If Al-Hilal truly want to live up to their lofty ambitions, the question is no longer whether they can win – it is whether they can start playing like a side worthy of their status.