Al-Hilal's Win Masks Deeper Issues: Insights from Nasser Al-Shamrani

Nasser Al-Shamrani did not let the 4-2 scoreline fool him.

Even as Al-Hilal opened their Roshn League campaign with a win over Al-Faisaly, the club legend cut straight through the euphoria, warning that the result only disguised deeper issues inside Simone Inzaghi’s team.

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 errors that have dogged recent performances, he said, were still there in plain sight, leaving Inzaghi and his staff with a serious problem to solve.

Bono the saviour, Koulibaly under scrutiny

One man escaped the criticism. Yassine Bono.

Al-Shamrani highlighted the Moroccan goalkeeper as a decisive factor in the win, insisting Bono’s interventions kept the game from slipping away from Al-Hilal. His saves did more than protect a lead; they covered up structural flaws that again surfaced against Al-Faisaly.

“Bono’s beauties are too much for Inzaghi,” Al-Shamrani remarked, underlining how the keeper’s brilliance drags Al-Hilal out of trouble and grants the team a wider margin for error than their performance truly deserves. With a goalkeeper of that calibre, the line between control and chaos becomes easier to blur.

The former striker also pointed to Kalidou Koulibaly as a central piece in Inzaghi’s system. The Senegalese defender’s display, he stressed, cannot be judged in isolation. It ripples through the entire side, because defensive stability is the backbone of any team with serious title ambitions. When Koulibaly is exposed or uncertain, the whole structure feels it.

Same mistakes, same warning

Despite the four goals and the three points, Al-Shamrani refused to dress the night up as anything more than a warning.

From his perspective, Al-Hilal offered nothing new tactically. The patterns were familiar, and not in a reassuring way. The same lapses that have repeatedly appeared under Inzaghi resurfaced, and the comfortable-looking win should not become a shield to deflect criticism or delay solutions.

He stressed that Al-Hilal must deal with these shortcomings quickly. This season’s competition will be intense, and what they got away with against Al-Faisaly could prove fatal against stronger opponents, even if the results keep coming for now.

The message is blunt. Inzaghi may have the result he wanted on opening day, but the scrutiny has already started. For a club built on dominance and expectation, simply winning will not be enough. Al-Hilal are being judged on whether they can play at a level worthy of their ambitions – and that question, for now, remains unanswered.