Vietnam national football team is about to enter the campaign to defend the V.AFF Cup championin Singapore and after valuable lessons from facing extremely strong opponents at the continental level in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, now is the time for coach Park Hang-seo to return to the most suitable playing field. However, there is no guarantee that this will be an easy campaign.

Trong Hoang and Hung Dung's inability to attend the AFF Cup is a huge loss for the Vietnamese national team.Photo: document

The Vietnam national team is different from the victory in 2018. At that time, we were flying high with a new golden generation of national football after the miracles at the U23 Asian Cup and ASIAD, and the regional public could feel that it would be difficult for any team to stop the Vietnam national team. Now that generation has changed a lot and not necessarily in a positive direction.

The main stars are still stable.

Compared to the final match at My Dinh 3 years ago, the Vietnam national team still has 5 players who continue to play as starters or are still in the squad going to Singapore, including Phan Van Duc, Nguyen Quang Hai, Que Ngoc Hai, Do Duy Manh, Tran Dinh Trong. Among them, Van Duc has just gone through a period of form that many people have criticized, however, he still deserves to be included when we realize that Van Duc is probably the best winger on the left flank with the ability to protect the full-back.

Quang Hai, Que Ngoc Hai, Duy Manh still maintain their form but Duy Manh's position may be threatened. Dinh Trong has been struggling with injuries for quite a while so he will need a series of continuous matches to reassure coach Park Hang Seo, but if Duy Manh continues to make mistakes at the continental level in Southeast Asia, coach Park may have to make changes.

Hung Dung officially will not participate in this tournament due to procedural problems in Singapore, so coach Park Hang Seo will continue to use the trio of midfielders Tuan Anh - Hoang Duc - Quang Hai who are familiar with each other.

Positions that are difficult to replace

Hung Dung, Van Hau, Trong Hoang, Anh Duc, Huy Hung and Van Lam are the other 6 players in the 2018 final squad. Currently, Anh Duc and Huy Hung are no longer on the team, Hung Dung has paperwork problems so he cannot go to Singapore to participate in the tournament, and the remaining 5 players are all injured. Van Hau's position was taken by Hong Duy in the 3rd qualifying round of the World Cup and he made many mistakes, but coach Park doesn't really have many options and if Van Duc supports, Hong Duy's position will not be too worrying when playing against regional level opponents.

The duo Hoang Hai and Que Ngoc Hai still maintain their form. Photo: Archive

Van Thanh has not played too impressively recently, but it is difficult to expect him to compete with opponents who are almost always stronger in terms of muscle and speed, and Ho Tan Tai has not yet fully shown enough ability to take Van Thanh's place.

Although there have been many complaints about Tan Truong in recent matches, both Van Lam and Van Toan are injured and will not play, making coach Park Hang-seo want to stabilize the goalkeeper position and trust the Hanoi FC goalkeeper. Nguyen Manh's height is a minus point and Van Hoang has not been liked by coach Park since the training session in May.

The midfield of the Vietnam National Team has recently been leaning towards 3 people with the group of Tuan Anh - Quang Hai - Hoang Duc and if nothing changes, they will be the main players. This can be considered the least controversial line of the Vietnam National Team at the moment, the only problem is that after this trio, the alternatives to them are not really impressive, including Luong Xuan Truong.

Tien Linh's recent form makes his position not expected. Photo: Hieu Luong

It is a fact that Coach Park's strikers after the 2018 AFF Cup are no longer as scary as before. Although Tien Linh has good scoring ability, his skill set is inferior to Anh Duc's in many aspects. If playing with 5 midfielders, Coach Park will probably rely more on Ha Duc Chinh's ability to create walls and compete in big matches, and he will use Cong Phuong and Van Toan depending on the opponent.

Get stronger or weaker?

The depth of the Vietnamese team is thickest in the central defender positions with Thanh Chung and Viet Anh having matured a lot compared to 3 years ago, however the goalkeeper and full-back positions have lost their main players. The midfield line with 3 very high-quality starting players, and Coach Park's attack will revolve around Van Duc - Tien Linh - Cong Phuong - Van Toan - Duc Chinh depending on each match, not necessarily many but still quite good.

So, frankly, the Vietnamese national team is currently weaker in terms of squad quality compared to the generation that won the AFF Cup 2018. We are still stronger than many Southeast Asian opponents, but our actual effectiveness must be verified in the tournament.

Vietnam team's match schedule in the group stage of AFF Cup 2020

December 6, 19:30: Vietnam - Laos

December 12, 19:30: Vietnam - Malaysia

December 15, 19:30: Vietnam - Indonesia

December 19, 7:30 p.m.: Vietnam - Cambodia