Marino Pusic Responds to Sack Talk After Al-Ahli Defeat

Marino Pusic walked into the press room in Riyadh with a 6-1 defeat hanging over him and a question waiting that cut deeper than any of Al-Shabab’s goals.

Had he just taken charge of his last game for Al-Ahli?

“You should be ashamed of the question,” he fired back, according to Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. No diplomacy. No soft landing. Just a raw response from a coach who had been ripped apart on the pitch and then asked to contemplate his own football obituary.

A brutal night in Riyadh

At the SHG Arena, Al-Shabab dismantled Al-Ahli in the twelfth round of the Roshn League. Six goals conceded, one scored, and a performance littered with errors. It was not just a defeat; it was a capitulation.

Pusic did not hide from that.

“We lost by a big and unexpected scoreline, we made many individual mistakes,” he said. Those errors, he explained, arrived in a devastating early spell. “The individual mistakes, made in the first 25 minutes, complicated everything.”

By then, the contest was gone. The structure, the composure, the belief — all shredded under relentless pressure.

The fans made their anger clear. Pusic accepted that, too.

“The fans have the right to express what they feel, and I am a professional coach,” he said, before offering a direct apology. “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.”

No excuses, but a reminder: this disaster did not arrive in isolation.

Record under scrutiny

Pusic took over at the start of the season, replacing German coach Matthias Jaissle, and until Friday night his numbers had been strong. Across 17 matches in all competitions, he has delivered 11 wins, five defeats and a single draw.

That kind of return usually buys time. Nights like this threaten to burn it.

The scale of the loss to Al-Shabab jolts the narrative. Five straight victories had built momentum and restored confidence around the club. One 6-1 hammering has dragged the conversation abruptly towards his job security.

Pusic clearly feels that shift and is not prepared to quietly accept it.

No time to lick wounds

There is barely room for reflection. Al-Ahli now leave domestic chaos behind and head into continental pressure.

Next up is a trip to Qatar, where Al-Ahli face Al-Sadd on Monday in the fourth round of the league phase of the AFC Champions League Elite. It is the kind of fixture that can either deepen a crisis or reset a season.

Pusic has nailed his colours to the mast: hard work, a response, a reaction. The numbers say his tenure has been largely successful. The scoreboard in Riyadh says something very different.

Which of those stories will define his future may well be decided in Doha.