Al-Shamrani Critiques Al-Hilal's Performance Despite Win

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 cut straight through the euphoria, insisting the scoreline only disguised problems that refuse to go away.

Speaking on the “Dawrina Ghair” programme, Al-Shamrani argued that “the Boss” fell well short of the standards demanded by a squad of this quality. The same recurring mistakes, he warned, are still woven into Simone Inzaghi’s team, leaving the Italian and his staff with a serious puzzle to solve.

Bono the saviour, Koulibaly under scrutiny

Amid the criticism, one name escaped unscathed – Yassine Bono.

Al-Shamrani was emphatic about the Moroccan goalkeeper’s impact. Bono, he said, played a decisive role in keeping the score respectable, his interventions bailing Al-Hilal out whenever Al-Faisaly broke through. The veteran’s reflexes and positioning, in Al-Shamrani’s view, covered up structural flaws that were exposed again on opening night.

“Bono’s beauties are too much for Inzaghi,” Al-Shamrani remarked, underlining how the keeper’s saves are buying time for a team still far from its peak. With a goalkeeper of that calibre, he stressed, Al-Hilal enjoy a wider margin for error than most.

He then turned to Kalidou Koulibaly, describing the Senegalese defender as a central pillar in the system. Koulibaly’s level, Al-Shamrani explained, is not just about individual form. It ripples through the entire side, especially in a team with title ambitions where defensive stability sets the tone for everything else.

When Koulibaly is on edge, the whole back line feels it. When he is commanding, the rest of the team can breathe.

Inzaghi warned: same mistakes, new season

The four goals against Al-Faisaly did not convince Al-Shamrani that anything has truly changed under Inzaghi.

From his perspective, Al-Hilal produced nothing new from a technical standpoint. The patterns that have troubled them in recent weeks, he argued, were all still there. The win, he cautioned, must not become a shield to hide what is actually happening on the pitch.

He stressed that Al-Hilal have to correct these issues quickly. This Roshn League season promises fierce competition, and the same lapses that went unpunished against Al-Faisaly could prove costly against stronger rivals, even if the results keep coming for now.

Those words place an early spotlight on Inzaghi. The Italian has the result he wanted to start the campaign, but the message from one of the club’s icons is unmistakable: victories alone will not satisfy the expectations around this squad.

Al-Hilal have their first three points. What they still lack, in Al-Shamrani’s eyes, is a performance level worthy of their ambitions.