Learning under Lamouchi: how Al Riyadh are flying high in RSL

Riyadh is a vast city, home to more than seven million people and spanning an area in size greater than Rome, Madrid, and even London.

In a football sense, however, it can be hard to stand out in a place dominated by Al Hilal and Al Nassr. Even Al Shabab, the capital’s original football club, often play third fiddle to the two giants, that despite their history of success.

So, spare a thought for the city’s other professional club, Al Riyadh, as they try to make their mark having returned to the Roshn Saudi League last season for the first time in nearly two decades.

Although, thus far this campaign, they are certainly doing that. Three wins in their past four - the latest a 1-0 victory against Al Okhdood in Matchweek 7 - have catapulted Al Riyadh into fourth in the table. Incredibly, they are within touching distance of the top three ahead of the visit of second-placed Al Ittihad to the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium this Thursday.

It represents Al Riyadh’s highest position in more than two decades having made it back into the RSL only last season for the first time since 2005.

While success had been hard to come by in recent years, for a period in the mid-1990s, they threatened to break the stranglehold the other three Riyadh clubs had on the competition, with Al Hilal, Al Nassr and Al Shabab sharing every league title between 1987 and 1996.

Impressively, Al Riyadh breached the big three in the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons, finishing second and third respectively, both times behind Al Hilal. In the former, they lifted the Crown Prince Cup that season.

In what was something of a golden era for the club, Al Riyadh also achieved success on the continent and regionally, making the semi-final of the Asian Cup Winners’ Cup in 1995, and doing likewise in the Arab Cup Winners’ Cup both that year and the next.

The good times, though, eventually stopped rolling. Despite successive fifth-place finishes at the turn of the century, Al Riyadh were relegated at the end of the 2004-05 season. They remained absent from the top flight until winning promotion for the 2023-24 campaign.

Perhaps understandably, their first season back on the big stage was all about survival; Al Riyadh went about ensuring they stayed afloat but at the same time laid a foundation to build upon for this campaign and those that follow.

In truth, they only just achieved that. For the entirety of the second half of last season, they sat just above the relegation zone, knowing that one or two bad results would quickly put them in the drop zone. Ultimately, they survived, safe by three points and earning a second straight season in the RSL.

Having navigated the first hurdle, Al Riyadh approached the off-season and the summer transfer window with a more aggressive approach. It signalled an intent to more than just make up the numbers; evidently, they want to get back to the high-flying nineties.

It started with a coaching change, with former French international and Cardiff City manager, Sabri Lamouchi, taking the reins. Lamouchi is no stranger to Gulf football, having ended his playing career in Qatar, where he represented Al Rayyan, Umm Salal and Al Kharitiyath between 2006 and 2009. With fond memories, he returned to the country in 2014 in a managerial capacity, firstly with El Jaish. There, he won the 2016 Crown Prince Cup.

Lamouchi departed after the merger with Lekhwiya that created the club known today as Al Duhail, whom he came back to coach between 2020 and 2021. In his only season in charge - the COVID-impacted 2020-21 campaign - Al Duhail finished runners-up to Al Sadd.

While that experience was mined solely in Qatar, it did give Lamouchi a taste of football in Saudi Arabia during the AFC Champions League in 2021, with Al Duhail drawn to play in the centralised Group C in Jeddah against Al Ahli, along with Iran’s Esteghlal and Iraq’s Al Shorta.

It’s knowledge and know-how that no doubt helped Lamouchi make the so-far-seamless transition to life in the RSL. Arriving at Al Riyadh in July, the elegant Frenchman wasted no time in overseeing an overhaul of the squad that transformed their profile – and their ambitions.

Despite interest from other clubs, Al Riyadh were able to snare one of the standout players from last season’s RSL, in Bernard Mensah. The Ghanaian was a revelation for relegated Al Tai, with 14 goals across the season, and his move to Riyadh marked a significant coup for the capital club. Yet, he has a solitary goal in seven appearances for this new side.

The raid of the relegated teams didn’t stop there: Al Riyadh also grabbed Al Hazem’s exciting midfield duo of Faiz Selemani and Toze, two players who have impressed under Lamouchi, with five goal involvements in the 2024-25 RSL between them.

With an eye on improving their squad across the board, Lamouchi and the club hierarchy looked high and wide for new options across all the lines, making them one of the busiest and most active clubs in the window. Veteran Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan was brought in to add experience at the back, as was former Queens Park Rangers defender Yoann Barbet.

The stylish Lucas Kal brings both grunt and polish in midfield, the latter evidenced by his wonder goal in the seventh minute of stoppage-time on opening day to earn Al Riyadh a share of the spoils in a thrilling 3-3 draw away to Al Wehda.

There’s promising Iraqi international Ibrahim Bayesh, too, who already has three league goals, and three Match of the Match awards, to his name. Meanwhile, Burkina Faso international Mohamed Konate arrived after five seasons in Russia with Akhmat Grozny. Like Mensah, he has found the net once thus far.

It was quite the transformative off-season, but far from simply overhaul the playing squad, Lamouchi has also revamped the team’s playing style. Gone is last season’s rigid 4-4-2, replaced with a more adventurous 4-1-4-1.

While it can leave Al Riyadh slightly more exposed defensively - they have conceded the most of anyone in the top half of the table (11) and faced the second-greatest number of shots in the league (100) - their 11 goals scored is the highest of anyone outside the top three. Thus, the fast start has fans dreaming of a return to the glory days of the 1990s.

It feels, now, that they're making up for lost time. And, while Al Hilal and Al Nassr are the frontrunners at the top of the current standings, Al Riyadh are clearly out to show that this city - their city - also has a fearsome flash of red and black.