Marino Pusic Defends Against Sack Talk After Al-Ahli's 6-1 Loss
Marino Pusic walked into the press room in Riyadh with a 6-1 defeat hanging over him and a season’s worth of questions waiting. One of them crossed his line.
Asked if the hammering by Al-Shabab at the SHG Arena had been his last game in charge of Al-Ahli, the Dutchman bit back. According to Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, he fired off a sharp reply: “You should be ashamed of the question.”
It was the rawest moment of a bruising night for the Saudi club in the twelfth round of the Roshn League, a night when Al-Shabab ripped through them and left the visiting bench exposed.
A rout and a reaction
On the pitch, Al-Ahli were unrecognisable. Al-Shabab sliced them open and ran away with a 6-1 victory that stunned even their own supporters. For a side that had strung together five straight wins, the collapse was as sudden as it was severe.
Pusic did not try to sugarcoat the performance.
“We lost by a big and unexpected scoreline, we made many individual mistakes, the fans have the right to express what they feel, and I am a professional coach,” he said.
The damage, he admitted, came early. The opening spell turned into a self-inflicted disaster.
“The individual mistakes, made in the first 25 minutes, complicated everything,” he added. That first half-hour shredded any game plan and turned the rest of the contest into damage limitation.
The travelling support, stunned and angry, made their feelings clear. Pusic did not push back at them. He apologised.
“We won five matches in a row, I offer my apologies to the fans, and we promise them hard work in the next match against Al-Sadd of Qatar.”
Pressure, but a record to point to
The defeat has inevitably triggered questions about his future, but Pusic can still lean on numbers that hardly scream crisis.
He took over at the start of the season, replacing German coach Matthias Jaissle, and has since overseen 17 matches in all competitions. The record: 11 wins, five defeats, one draw. One catastrophic night in Riyadh sits alongside a largely positive run.
That contrast fuels the debate. Is this a blip, or the first real crack in his project?
Pusic’s response in the press room suggested a man feeling the heat, yet determined to frame the story on his own terms. He refused to engage with the sack narrative, refused to let one result erase the previous five victories, and pinned the loss on individual errors rather than structural collapse.
No time to lick wounds
There is no soft landing. Al-Ahli now leave the wreckage of Riyadh behind and head straight into continental duty.
Next stop: Qatar. On Monday, they face Al-Sadd in the fourth round of the league phase of the AFC Champions League Elite, a fixture that suddenly carries a different weight. It is no longer just about points; it is about response, authority, and whether this team still reflects its coach.
Pusic has promised hard work. In Qatar, he may need something more: a performance that silences questions, before someone else starts answering them for him.
