Al Nassr do not have good players in every position compared to Al Hilal. However, Al Hilal was better at placing the best players or the best options in every position. I also think there is a difference in the technical director. They have one of the best players in the world by far, Cristiano Ronaldo. Cristiano is still contributing to the team at the highest level despite being 40 years old. Despite this, they still lose in the finals. The only explanation for this can be the difference in the technical director. The Saudi Arabian League will be watched more this year than last year, that is for sure.
Actually I agree with what you said about the defense and the quality of the players in the very weak defense line that Al Nassr currently has.
At the beginning of this season all the fans hoped that Al Nassr could start the season better than last season but it turned out that the start of this season was not very good.
Al Nassr may have European star players like Ronaldo but it is impossible for Al Nassr to only rely on Ronaldo because a club that wants to compete at the top should have perfect players in every line.
Now the problem has not been resolved and the coach should immediately fix the weaknesses that Al Nassr has.
There is no doubt about Al Hilal competitiveness, but things are not bad for Al Nassr because they are also having good and quality squad, but things are not favourable for them due to presence of Cristiano Ronaldo with most of the time their player playing under shadow of this legendary player and feel pressure which is not working for them, and they are facing problems as well.
Al Hilal is having strong balance into their defense and attack, so things are having good results for them, but Al Nassr is having poor defense which is not working for them in last two years in first game of this season they concede goal which hurt them badly, and they were not able to take lead again so still things are not ideal for them to have win in league even new club Al Qadisiya is having good balanced squad which is currently at the second spot with 2 wins from 2 games and having no goal against them.