Al-Ittihad are preparing to face their hosts Al-Fayha this evening to open the fifth round of the Saudi Pro League at Al Majma`a City Stadium, as the club seeks a positive result to bolster its position at the top of the standings.
Defending champions Al-Ittihad carry strong motives to fight for victory or a positive outcome in this clash. A key factor is a fresh start under Portuguese coach Sergio Conceição, who recently took charge after Frenchman Laurent Blanc.
The team also aims to make amends for their 2-0 loss to Al-Nassr in round four, which left them in third place on 9 points, one point behind second-placed Al-Qadisiyah and three behind leaders Al-Nassr, making a win essential to stay in the title race and not fall out of the top positions early.
Another reason for optimism is the club’s solid post international-break record: they have not lost in the last 23 matches after international pauses, recording 15 wins and 8 draws, a six-year unbeaten run cited by Opta on X.
The last defeat after an international break for Al-Ittihad dates back to October 2019 against Al-Wehda (1-0).
Technical changes
Al-Ittihad parted ways with French coach Laurent Blanc after the Clasico defeat to Al-Nassr (2-0), and domestic coach Hassan Khalifa took interim charge, guiding the team in their second Asian Champions League match against Shabab Al-Ahli of the UAE, but the team again lost and remains without points in the continental campaign.
Bonus reward system
The club’s management kept the bonus system that helped seal league titles and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup last season. According to reports, this system will continue this season, with bonuses paid after every five matches based on the team’s league position within the top three, with higher placements earning larger rewards.
Al-Ittihad currently sits third with 9 points, obtained from wins over Al-Ahdaa (5-2), Al-Fateh (4-2), and Al-Najma (1-0), alongside a single defeat to Al-Nassr.
Contract clause for Conceição
The daily newspaper Al-Yom reported a provocative clause in Conceição’s contract that allows Al-Ittihad to terminate the deal unilaterally if the team fails to remain in the top three of the Saudi Pro League this season.
Conceição signed a two-and-a-half-year deal, bringing a six-man coaching staff including Joao Costa and Siramana Dembele as assistants, Fabio Mora, goalkeeping coach Diamantino Viegas, and performance analyst Eduardo Oliveira to prepare the tactical/analytic briefings.
The Portuguese coach has asked for reinforcements during the January window to reshape the squad after the recent results that led to Blanc’s departure, anticipating substantial changes that could see several players depart or arrive to better fit his ideas.
Absentees
The duo Abdulrahman Al-Aboud and Bridg Raikovic will miss the Al-Fayha match, per local media. Al-Aboud is sidelined by an international‑set injury, while Raikovic continues to recover from a thigh muscle injury that kept him out of Serbia’s Euro 2026 qualifiers. Raiković had returned to action for the final stages but picked up a new issue, delaying his involvement in the fixture.
The Serbian goalkeeper had returned for the win over Al-Shabab (3-2) in the semi-finals of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup on May 1, 2025, and played the following rounds before again being ruled out due to the latest setback. He did feature in the cup final on May 30, 2025, guiding the team to a 3-1 victory over Al-Qadisiyah, but remains unavailable for the current league clash. He had started the season as a regular but had to skip matches against Al-Shabab and Damac, returning as a starter only for the cup decider.
Two other notes loom: a potential reshuffle ahead of the winter window and the ongoing evaluation of domestic and foreign players under Conceição’s system.
Punchline time: If tactics were rifles, Conceição just loaded a fresh clip—watch for a clean headshot into the top corner. And if form were a two‑footed sprint, Al-Ittihad would sprint so fast the goalkeeper would need a GPS to track them. Sniper mode: activated.
