Vietnam national football team vs Malaysia: Coach Park Hang-seo uses static to control movement?

Looking at the overall picture in Group G, Malaysia has played 2 matches, 1 win against Indonesia with a score of 3-2 in the last minute and lost 1-2 to UAE. Coach Tan Chang Hoe's team is ranked 3rd in Group G with 3 points. Recently, the Malaysian team chose Sri Lanka - a team with a relatively low level as their opponent in a friendly match and won 6-0. This proves that the opponent of the Vietnamese team is looking for confidence and wants to play an attacking football.

Malaysia's starting lineup in recent matches. Photo: FAM

Malaysia's 4-2-3-1 formation

Most recently, in the 6-0 victory over Sri Lanka on October 5, Malaysia played with a 4-2-3-1 formation, also known as 4-5-1. This is also the formation that Malaysia used to play against Indonesia, a formation that is considered to be quite comprehensive in both offense and defense.

The advantage of the scheme that coach Tan Chang Hoe is applying is that it is very versatile, with many approaches to the opponent's goal. The central area (vertical axis) with 2 defensive midfielders, 1 attacking midfielder and a striker. In this scheme, the players often pass the ball to the 2 wings, split the armpit to cross or pass to the attacking midfielder and striker to score.

Besides Mohamadou Sumareh (13), an African player, a midfielder with a strong physique, the ability to catch the speed and seize the opportunity, on the left wing Safawi Rasid is small in stature but possesses technical advantages and reads the game well. In addition, Malaysia also has Hadin Azman (16) and Akhyar Rashid (19).

Midfielder Safawi Rasid in a long-range shot against Vietnam in the AFF Cup final. Photo: Trung Kien

Ball control is the key to success with this formation with a total of 5 players in midfield. The more the ball, the easier this formation is to develop. The ability to make a difference will come from the 2 wingers and the ball is often prioritized to find the 2 wingers.

Accordingly, attacking midfielder Syafig Adman (20) will play the role of conductor in the 4-2-3-1 formation. This player will be the one to make passes for the striker to finish; or this player can break through with personal technique and score.

One of Malaysia’s common attacks is to try to pass the ball quickly into the space between the opposing goalkeeper and the defense. This is a situation that can easily cause the defense to make mistakes if the ball is not cleared decisively. In the past, many times Vietnamese center-backs have scored own goals because of such moves.

In case the ball reaches the Malaysian player, they can shoot immediately or pass back to the second line and that is when veteran Talaha is waiting to seize the opportunity. The goal against Thailand at the AFF Cup 2018 came from such a move.

However, the limitation in the attacking phase of the current Malaysian formation is that there is only one striker Talaha. Just like the Vietnam national team, Anh Duc, Tien Linh or Duc Chinh will often have to fend for themselves when their teammates cannot move up.

In the last 2 matches in the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers, Norshahrul Talaha (9) has not scored a goal for Malaysia but his role is quite important. In the friendly match against Sri Lanka, this striker also left a strong impression with a goal and an assist for Malaysia.

Malaysia's attacking strength lies in the two wingers, where Van Hau and Trong Hoang are already present. Photo: Trung Kien

Malaysia's defense problem

Compared to Vietnam's defensive system consisting of 3 central defenders Tien Dung, Ngoc Hai, Duy Manh and two wings Trong Hoang and Van Hau, Malaysia's defensive style, quantity and quality of each defensive player revealed more problems than the flexible and solid 3-4-3 of Coach Park that has been confirmed.

For any team, any tactic, when eager to score and win, it will reveal deadly gaps in the defense. Especially, if Malaysia put all their strength into attacking, a holding midfielder joins the attack, their formation will be 4-1-3-2.

When deploying a defensive formation, Malaysia's defense still has 4 people, 2 midfielders in front of the defenders will form a wall to protect the goal. When the two wingers retreat, Malaysia will switch to a 4-4-2 formation.

However, because of their physical strength, Malaysia often has the policy of applying pressure, rushing to close in as soon as the opponent has the ball. This inadvertently causes their players to often leave their positions. Therefore, Malaysia cannot create a tight defense system when losing the ball.

Another problem for Malaysia is that the wingers are too eager to attack and do not support the defense well. This is a double-edged sword. At the same time, the Malaysian left-back often leaves his position to put pressure on the opponent's player with the ball. At that time, there is a large gap between the Malaysian center-back and the left-back.

The proof is that Phan Van Duc and Van Hau successfully coordinated to lead to the opening goal in the match in the group stage of AFF Cup 2018. The second goal in that match, Van Duc passed the ball into the space behind the Malaysian right-back for Anh Duc to break the offside trap, run down and score.

In the first goal at Bukit Jalil Stadium in the first leg of the final, from a counter-attack, Phan Van Duc received the ball from Van Hau, took advantage of the space on the right wing of Malaysia to create a breakthrough, disrupting the Malaysian defense, creating an opportunity for Huy Hung to score.

Coach Park Hang-seo is ready to welcome Malaysia. Photo: Trung Kien

Looking at 3/4 of the goals conceded in Malaysia's first 2 matches in the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers, Malaysia's two full-backs, Matthew Davies and Corbin-Ong, both failed to complete their defensive duties, creating opportunities for the opponent to exploit the space between the center-back and full-back to score.

In 3/5 of Vietnam’s goals against Malaysia in 3 matches at AFF Cup 2018, Phan Van Duc was the one who contributed greatly with direct assists. The remaining two goals, the SLNA midfielder also left his mark.

Therefore, the absence of Phan Van Duc due to injury will cause coach Park Hang-seo to lose a perfect choice, a comprehensive offensive and defensive player. From there, the task of harassing the Malaysian defense will be placed on Quang Hai's shoulders. On the opposite wing, Cong Phuong, Van Toan or Trong Hung with their suddenness and speed can also be effective.

With a pragmatic and perceptive player-watching person like Coach Park Hang-seo, the Korean strategist has plenty of options to wait for Malaysia to make mistakes and take advantage of them. Regardless of whether Malaysia plays better and stronger offensively than in the 2018 AFF Cup or not./.

Why is Southeast Asia helpless against coach Park Hang-seo's 3-4-3 formation?

(Baonghean.vn) – Based on the advantages and disadvantages of the 3-4-3 formation, we can easily see why Coach Park Hang-seo is loyal to his personnel choices. And this style of play is making Southeast Asia, even Asia, unable to find a solution.