Al Ahly coach Marcel Koller sent a message to management after leaving Percy Tau and Mohamed Magdy Afsha on the bench against CR Belouizdad.
The defending African champions suffered their first defeat of the CAF Champions League group stages after going down 1-0 to the Algerian outfit on Friday night.
The defeat did come as a surprise, especially after Belouizdad lost 6-1 to Al Ahly a couple weeks ago in Cairo.
Read: Mayo's Belouizdad Sink Al Ahly To Overtake Pirates
Al Ahly's former director of football Wael Goma claims Koller was telling the club bosses that he does not have the depth on the bench anymore.
"The defeat reveals the state of Al-Ahly with coach Marcel Koller, who wants to send a certain message with what he did in the Shabab Belouizdad match," Goma told BeIN Sports.
"Koller wants to send a message to the management that the team does not have players, which made him keep Mohamed Magdy Afsha and Percy Tau as substitutes and include Karim El-Dabis as a winger."
"Why doesn't Kohler make a substitution until the 75th minute? A good coach who quickly corrects mistakes.
"Is it logical to face a competitor you beat by six goals with this purely defensive plan? When Afsha participated, he created danger, so why is he sitting as a substitute?"
