"He's suffering from Alzheimer's": En-Nesyri sparks mockery of Senegal star
What happened?
Kalidou Koulibaly found himself in the firing line after Al Ittihad's 3-2 defeat to Al Hilal in the eighth-round Clasico of the Saudi Roshn League. The Senegal defender's poor positioning let Youssef En-Nesyri in for Al Ittihad's goal, and the mocking comments and sharp criticism followed fast.
En-Nesyri struck in the 22nd minute. He latched onto an excellent pass from Marwan Al Sahafi and lashed a powerful effort past a surprised Yassine Bounou to bring Al Ittihad back into the game.
The Moroccan's finish was only half the story. En-Nesyri had slipped Koulibaly's marking and found himself in exactly the right pocket of space to shoot.
Abdullah Falatah opens fire on Koulibaly
Sports broadcaster Abdullah Falatah tore into Al Hilal's display in the Clasico, arguing the Al Ittihad coach had not managed the match to the required standard. He saved his sharpest words for Koulibaly's defensive errors, reaching for a brutal phrase to sum up the centre-back's lapses in concentration.
Speaking on Saudi Arabia's "Thmanyah" network of channels, Falatah said: "The Al Ittihad coach's management of the match today was not good, and Koulibaly is suffering from technical Alzheimer's. If the Al Ittihad coach had played with two up front, Al Ittihad would have benefited more."
Read also: En-Nesyri in the dock, and the reason is Yassine Bounou!
Others piled in too. Sports analyst Abdo Atif pinned En-Nesyri's goal squarely on the Al Hilal defender, noting that the poor positioning handed the Al Ittihad striker the time to take the ball down and shoot. The whole sequence exposed a flaw in how Al Hilal tracked the opponent's movement.
En-Nesyri's goal brings back the question marks over Al Hilal's defence
Koulibaly is meant to be the experience and the solidity in that back line, especially in big matches demanding high concentration in marking and in dealing with movement inside the box. The goal reignited the debate over his level. Strikers of En-Nesyri's calibre don't need many chances to punish an error in positioning, and that is exactly what unfolded in the Clasico.
Al Hilal still took the match 3-2. Conceding in that fashion, though, handed the critics a fresh opening to question the Senegalese, particularly in a fixture that carried so much weight in the race for top spot.
One incident alone cannot define a player, of course. Judging Koulibaly properly means looking at his level across the 90 minutes and at how well he corrected his mistakes and carried out his defensive duties.
