Al-Nassr lost 2-1 to Al-Ittihad, and ever since, Postecoglou has returned again and again to the same themes: the pressure of fixtures, the shortage of signings, and the circumstances holding his team back. He repeated it after the draw against Al-Khaleej. He said it once more following the Al-Ain disaster, pointing to a punishing schedule.
Nobody can ignore what fixture congestion does to a squad, and Al-Nassr did not go into the season with the strong signings they needed in certain positions. But these justifications have started to lose their power to explain what happens on the pitch. When the same mistakes keep repeating, when the identity fades and the hallmarks of a style vanish from one match to the next, you cannot pin everything on the schedule or a thin squad.
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Against Al-Ain, Al-Nassr looked more than just an exhausted side. The whole system was suffering. The defence left huge spaces, the pressing lacked organisation, the lines drifted apart, and the attack barely threatened Khalid Eisa’s goal.
Fatigue alone, then, does not explain a four-goal defeat built on a long series of tactical and individual errors.
More dangerous still, the endless excuses risk becoming a problem in their own right rather than an explanation. Al-Nassr do not only need their players back or fresh faces added. They need to recover their identity on the pitch. Postecoglou has to find solutions with what he has right now, because the competition will not wait for the team to hit its best circumstances.