The Al Shabab Post
Squad18 Sep 2028
Maximiliano Velazco damages knee ligaments — 109 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 109 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Rashid Yaqoob runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Al Shabab
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reda Jaadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match16 Sep 2028
The goals have deserted Al Shabab
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al Shabab can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Al Shabab
Ahmed Aït-Abdesslem and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match16 Sep 2028
Al Nasr take the points off Al Shabab
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Al Shabab count the cost of losing Khalid Al Kamali
26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Ibrahim Abdulrahman: “No excuses”
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
The form table has caught Abdullah Omar
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
- Looking ahead A reunion for Siaka Sidibé
- Market Mohamed Hassan linked with a move away
- The dugout Diego Ferreira knocks on the manager’s door