It’s been a difficult second season in Saudi Arabia for Riyad Mahrez. After moving from Manchester City to Al-Ahli in August 2023, the Algerian topped the assist charts in the Pro League with 13, as well as scoring 11 goals, helping his team to finish third, which for a newly promoted team was as good as could have been hoped for.
When this season kicked off in August, the remit was a title challenge and for the Greens to lift a trophy by the Red Sea. A few weeks in, neither is looking likely. A home defeat in the King’s Cup, the premier domestic tournament, to a team struggling at the bottom of the second tier was a genuine shock. Worse is the league form. Only seven points from the first six games means Al-Ahli are already 11 points off the pace. Matthias Jaissle, the manager, went into the international break with some trepidation.
Mahrez has also been under scrutiny having contributed no league assists or goals so far. There have been comments about his weight from the former Tottenham forward Mido, as well as barbs about his attitude from the former Hilal and Libya midfielder Tarik El Taib. After Al-Ahli defeated Damac 4-2 last month, Mahrez, who has played in every game, explained on social media: “The team achieved a good result and I am very happy but in the past two matches it was difficult for me, as I am sick with bronchitis and I need to rest a little before I reach my best levels and make you proud.”
Mahrez also drew fire for his comments about Al-Ahli not receiving the same level of support in the transfer market as other members of the “Big Four”. Al-Ahli, along with their Jeddah rivals Al-Ittihad and Riyadh twin titans Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr, were taken over by the Public Investment Fund in 2023. The winger’s words went down badly among many pundits, with some quick to tell the star to mind his own business and Mido saying that the size of Mahrez’s fee, around £30m, and annual salary, reportedly in the region of £40m, accounted for a healthy proportion of the club’s outlay.
If results had been better, then all this would, of course, be less of an issue, but even at such an early stage of the season it is safe to say Al-Ahli’s title dreams are over and now the Asian Champions League – where Mahrez had his best game of the season last week, scoring and assisting in a 2-0 win in Dubai – is the only real hope of success.
Mahrez was once part of a Manchester winning machine; now he is part of a Saudi Arabian chasing pack that knows it can’t afford to drop points if the all-conquering champions, Al-Hilal, are to be stopped. Al-Ahli were the latest to face them last Saturday and took the lead in front of 60,000 home spectators before going on to lose against the clearly superior visitors who have now won all six games in the league.
Al-Hilal are looking ominous. The 19-time champions set a world-record winning sequence of 34 games this year, have won 39 and drawn three of their past 42 league games and have now scored in 69 consecutive matches. To put their dominance into context, Al-Ahli dropped more points in the first five games of the season than Al-Hilal have done in the past 42.
It is still early days in Mahrez’s relationship with another big-name arrival from the Premier League, Ivan Toney, the England striker having scored twice in four league games since his move from Brentford in August. Meanwhile Aleksandar Mitrovic, who moved from west London to Saudi Arabia the previous August, has nine goals in six games for Al-Hilal this season, having scored 28 during the previous campaign. The Serbian is, quite simply, unplayable at times.
Such form means Neymar is not missed. There were hopes the Brazilian would have already returned from the cruciate ligament injury he picked up last October. He wasn’t registered for the first half of the league season as Al-Hilal had their full quota of foreign players, though he could have played in the Champions League. A comeback by the 32-year-old is not looking likely any time soon. Jorge Jesus, the head coach, doesn’t seem that bothered and that is not just because of the form of Mitrovic, Rúben Neves is still pulling the strings, Kalidou Koulibaly and Ali al-Bulaihi are still imperious in defence and, when they are not, Yassine Bounou is there to make save after save.
And what of Cristiano Ronaldo, scorer of a record 35 goals last season? This season, he has already seen his Portuguese compatriot Luis Castro fired and replaced by Stefano Pioli as head coach at Al-Nassr. The improvement under the Italian is clear to see; before, there was an over-reliance on the stars to make the difference whereas now Al-Nassr are more of a team and the defensive mistakes that cost them last season have been, so far, largely absent under the new boss. The three goals conceded is the lowest in the league.
Al-Ittihad are also looking good, winning every game apart from their loss to the leaders. Karim Benzema has seven goals this season and the French striker seems more settled and dangerous under his compatriot Laurent Blanc.
Quite clearly Al-Ahli, and Mahrez in particular, have much work to do if they are going to compete with the rest of the Big Four.
