No-Error Mission: Can Conceicao Turn Al-Ittihad's Season Around?
10 October 2025
Under a cloak of uncertainty and mounting pressure, the Portuguese Sergio Conceicao begins his mission with Al-Ittihad, a task as delicate as walking a tightrope high above a city skyline. The club has stumbled, the fans are restless, and the media is hungry for a spark. Conceicao arrives with a reputation for discipline and a track record of turning difficult projects around, but the clock is ticking fast.
The team opened the season with a string of underwhelming results, and the local Super Cup trophy slipped away in a 1-2 defeat to Al-Nassr. The earlier decisions of former coach Laurent Blanc drew scrutiny and eroded confidence as stars struggled for form.
Amid this chaos, Conceicao faces a tight window to reorder the ship, rebuild the team's identity, and shield the season from slipping into a vortex of defeats.
Season Shock
Season shock hit the club as performances dipped, blamed in part on Blanc's controversial choices and a decline across several leading players.
The slump was underscored by the local cup exit and a chastening 1-2 defeat to Al-Nassr, and then a painful start in Asia with a 1-2 loss to Al-Wahda of the UAE in the opening AFC Champions League match.
The bad run continued with a 0-2 loss to Al-Nassr in the fourth round of the Saudi Pro League, triggering management to dismiss Blanc within 48 hours of the setback and install Hassan Khalifa as caretaker, who then fell 0-1 to Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai in the second round of Asia's elite competition.
The club’s struggles fueled calls for broader changes, including a rethink of the foreign contingent, and a push for January additions to rejuvenate the squad and restore balance.
New Dawn for Al-Ittihad
In that moment, the club looked to the horizon. The supporters, famed for their passion, demanded sweeping changes and a reset of the squad. They urged removing a cluster of foreign stars such as Fabinho, Kanté, Moussa Diaby, and Houssam Aouar, while hoping for new arrivals in January to fuel a resurrection.
Enter Conceicao, whose arrival sparked a renewed sense of purpose. The eyes of the fans and the board alike rested on the Portuguese coach, known for his sharp personality and a rigorous tactical footprint at previous clubs. The aim: restore the Union's competitive edge and the swagger that propelled last season’s league triumphs.
A New Identity and The No-Error Challenge
Conceicao is expected to imprint a disciplined, compact style based on defense-first organization, high pressing, and quick transitions, often deployed in a 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1, with the flexibility to shift to 4-3-3 depending on the match.
His plan relies on tightening the three defensive lines, using the wings to create danger in wide areas, and leveraging attackers such as Benzema, Diaby, and Aouar to convert transitions into goals. The bigger challenge remains the defense’s pace and the midfield’s physical readiness to sustain press and transition play at a high tempo.
Beyond tactics, Conceicao faces the task of managing a locker room full of star names and restoring confidence that has waned after a rough spell. When players believe in the system, the rest often follows—turning individual stars into a cohesive unit that pursues a common goal: returning to victories and trophies.
And this season offers no room for error. A wrong step could ignite a fierce backlash from fans and media alike and push the club into a multi-front struggle across domestic competition and Asia. The coach’s every move will be watched, and the clock is ticking toward a defining test: can Conceicao deliver quickly, or will there be room for further upheaval?
In the end, the coming weeks will be the players’ moment to prove their value, to show the unity and focus that will allow Al-Ittihad to climb back toward the top. If they fail to meet the standard, expect audacious changes to follow.
Punchline 1: If Conceicao can turn this around, I’ll finally believe in miracles—and in the calendar that says January exists for a reason.
Punchline 2: If not, we’ll have plenty of time to practice our defense of the obvious: sometimes you bench the stars to save the drama for the fans at home.
