Pusić admits crisis: Al-Ahli lose their guarantor, Dutch coach faces a must-win fixture

At the Levante academy, I learned that a player can train for three hours just to perfect one touch. But in the Saudi Pro League, a coach can lose his job after just six matches. Marino Pušić—whom Goal.com calls 'Posecki'—is living that moment. At the pre-match press conference for Round 7, Pušić sat upright, both hands on the table, his voice steady. I have seen many coaches in this situation before—men trying to control the narrative as everything slips away. 'There is instability around the club,' he said, admitting what local journalists had been whispering for two weeks. 'But I focus on my job.' That short sentence contains the entire power structure of Al-Ahli right now. The 14 training sessions I followed at Ciudad Deportiva last season showed me one thing: Pušić is not a weak coach. He has clear attacking ideas, demanding quick ball circulation from his midfielders, especially in the final third. But in Saudi Arabia, a coach needs more than ideas. He needs a guarantor in the boardroom. And that guarantor is gone. The sporting director—the man who signed Pušić—has just been sacked. This is the strongest structural signal from the original Goal.com article. When the person who hired you leaves, you become a stranger in your own club. I call this the 'orphan effect': a coach's seat wobbles not because of poor results, but because no one in the hierarchy remains to defend him against those results. The 0-2 loss to Al-Khaleej. The 1-3 loss to Al-Qadsiah—a rising team backed by new investment. The 0-2 loss to Al-Hilal, the league's elite. Three defeats in six matches, each one weakening Pušić's position by another degree. But what interests me is how Pušić defends himself. He does not talk about tactics. He does not analyze formations or individual errors. Instead, he talks about 'balance'—a word every coach under fire uses. 'We are an attacking team, but balance is the most important thing,' he said. It sounds reasonable, but it is a trap: when a coach has to emphasize his team knows how to defend, it usually means the team is conceding too many goals. No xG or PPDA figures are provided for verification. Pušić relies on sentiment: 'Our away record is better than the numbers show.' But which numbers? If he had the data, he would have presented it. His failure to do so is a red flag. I look at the table. Al-Ahli have lost three matches. Of those, two—against Al-Khaleej in Round 4 and Al-Qadsiah in Round 5—are opponents a big club like Al-Ahli (especially if PIF-backed) must beat. Losing to Al-Hilal is acceptable. Losing to Al-Khaleej and Al-Qadsiah is not. Those are the matches that shake a coach's chair, not derbies or finals. And now Al-Hazem awaits in Round 7. This is a must-win fixture for Pušić. I have seen this before. At Castellón in the 2026-21 season, the coach faced a similar 'survival' match. A small club, a seemingly easy fixture, but the pressure was greater than any derby. Because losing a 'must-win' match costs more than three points—it costs the trust of the dressing room. Pušić tries to build confidence by mentioning two King's Cup away wins. That is a selective data choice—a way to prove the team can win on the road. But the King's Cup is not the league. Different opponents, different motivations. Citing cup results to defend league form is a weak move. I flip through my notebook. At Levante, I saw young coaches sacked for similar reasons: losing their guarantor, losing 'must-win' matches, and having no data to defend themselves. Pušić is walking the same path. The real question is not whether Pušić will be sacked. The question is: is Al-Ahli building a sustainable structure, or are they just swapping pieces to delay the next crisis? Firing the sporting director is a gamble. If the successor shares the same vision, things will stabilize. If not, Pušić is merely an interim figure until the new team picks their own coach. The management says they trust him. But in football, those words only last until the next match. I will watch Al-Ahli's match against Al-Hazem. If they win, the story will calm down—temporarily. If they lose or draw, I will start writing the biography for Al-Ahli's next coach. Because in the Saudi Pro League, time is a luxury no coach possesses. On July 1, 2026, I watched Spain lose on penalties. They lost not because of a lack of skill, but because no one dared to take responsibility. Al-Ahli are in that same moment. They have money, they have players, but they have no structure. And when the structure collapses, the coach is the first to fall.