Disasters and excuses: Moroccan magic exposes Ronaldo and Al-Nassr on Al-Ain's terrifying night

Perhaps the mistake began before the opening whistle. Ange Postecoglou opted for a line-up built on a 3-4-3, a shape that laid bare Al-Nassr's shortcomings down the flanks.

Short of defensive depth on both sides, the team left gaps that Al-Ain knew exactly how to exploit. The flanks became open gateways for the hosts' attacks.

Nor did the problem stop at the tactical shape. A large gap opened up between Al-Nassr's lines, and even when they tried to press, they never troubled Al-Ain.

Al-Nassr pressed timidly, letting Al-Ain's players carry the ball out and knock it around with ease. The Emirati side played as if their opponents weren't even there.

Then came the individual disasters to finish what the tactical errors had started. The first goal told the story. Saad Al-Nasser committed a fatal mistake with an errant pass, Hussein Rahimi pounced and fired into Al-Nassr's net. The second was almost a carbon copy: a ball from the right reached the heart of the defence, and Rahimi struck again.

No better than the flanks, the centre sat alarmingly open. It showed for the third goal, when Soufiane Rahimi collected a perfect pass in the space Al-Nassr's defence had abandoned and slotted home to deepen the collapse.

The fourth goal summed up the whole scene. Al-Nassr pushed forward with every line in search of a comeback, and Al-Ain broke away on a swift counter. Soufiane Rahimi seized on it before gifting his Greek teammate a decisive pass to make it four.

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.

Read also.. "Pathetic".. Al-Nassr fans stun Ronaldo and demand Postecoglou's head

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.

Al Ain's four goals exposed another problem, perhaps an even more sensitive one: Cristiano Ronaldo himself. The Portuguese still has the quality and the finishing to make a difference. But treating him as though he can press and move at the same level across a full 90 minutes now needs a rethink.

Gone are the days when Ronaldo could lead the press as he did in his younger years. That made it far easier for Al Ain to play the ball out in plenty of situations. 

Some of the sprint races told the same story. The Portuguese can no longer control his rhythm the way fans grew used to, a natural consequence of advancing years. It becomes a problem, though, when the system around him offers no solutions to compensate.

Al Nassr, then, are not simply suffering from defensive errors. The fragility runs through the whole system. Lose the ball and they don't press enough. Defend and they leave spaces. Attack and they lack continuity. Ronaldo, meanwhile, finds himself far from the version that could once drag the team out of any hole on his own.

That is why the Al Ain night may amount to more than a four-goal defeat. It could be a genuine alarm bell for Al Nassr before they face bigger clubs, sides far better equipped to exploit those spaces.

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 One by one, Al Ain laid the flaws bare, with Hussein and Soufiane Rahimi punishing almost every mistake. If Postecoglou finds excuses rather than real solutions, these four goals could prove just the beginning of far bigger problems.