Expert corner: Losing also has five or seven ways

(Banghean.vn) - Perhaps before the match, SG FC coach Duc Thang told his players, "In the first half, let Santos Lima solo to destroy the opponent's defenders, then in the second half, the whole team will feed the ball to him." That would be enough to defeat a high-spirited SLNA team.

We know that SLNA will lose 3-4 more matches before the V-League 2016 ends, but the way they lost yesterday afternoon is hard for Nghe An audiences to "digest". Facing a Saigon FC that has nothing outstanding, with 2 significant explosive players, coach Duc Thang even put Trinh Duy Long on the bench, but SLNA still knows how to lose easily.

Nghe An audiences do not blame the two foreign players of SLNA for playing as usual, but perhaps they stumbled more than usual in this match. The audience also has no opinion when the coaching board still trusts Van Vinh and locks Tuan Tai in waiting for this player to "spring" when he is put on the field. Football really needs time for experimentation.

But the decision to replace central defender Van Khanh with midfielder Thanh Phong at the end of the match and push Ngoc Hai back to play central defender with Manh Hung was a difficult decision to understand. It is true that Van Khanh had received a yellow card but his physical condition was guaranteed, he was not injured, there was not much playing time left, most importantly Van Khanh was playing quite well with Manh Hung. A match in which until he was replaced, the trio of Van Khanh, Manh Hung and above him Ho Khac Ngoc played quite tightly.

The question is: At that time, did Quang Truong want to earn 1 point or 3? If he wanted to earn 1 point, it was clear that the player on the field had to be Phi Son or a foreign player, not Van Khanh. If he wanted to score 3 points, then such a substitution would be even more confusing?

With SLNA's current playing style, goalkeeper Nguyen Manh will still have to pick the ball out of the net because of silly goals conceded.

Rarely is there a team that constantly changes the center-back pairing as much as SLNA, perhaps SLNA's coaching staff themselves do not remember the last time Ngoc Hai played with Manh Hung. So clearly, with 4 yellow shirts against 2 home players, SLNA still conceded a goal in the 89th minute. The direct cause was Ngoc Hai's superficiality in marking and the defenders' poor division of defense in the area, but indirectly it was the coaching staff's fault for changing players. Not many people know that this was the first time Sy Sam, Ngoc Hai, Manh Hung and The Nhat were arranged to play together in the defense, and it was so perfect.

I don't understand why the coaching board chose a rather sensitive time to assemble and test the defender lineup even though we know that Ngoc Hai has long been the one who often makes mistakes in both the national team and SLNA. Look, throughout the first half, Ngoc Hai played on the left wing, in the second half he played on the right wing, leaving Khac Ngoc to try his best to block and "guard the house" against 2-3 Saigon FC midfielders. As a national team player, I don't understand what Ngoc Hai would think when he let Duy Long freely turn the ball over for Lima to leisurely head the ball to score a goal while Nguyen Manh was helpless. We do not underestimate the talent and physical strength of this 1.81m tall and 80kg Brazilian player, it's not simple that he just joined SG FC to play all 4 matches, score 2 goals and bring home 4 points for the team. But clearly, if the defense played calmly, it would be difficult for him to score... then when Duy Long entered the field, SLNA's coaching board quickly directed the midfield to play closer.

The "fire" will go out if SLNA does not improve its gameplay.

Before that, in the 81st minute, the entire SLNA defenders suddenly stopped waiting for the referee's offside whistle, allowing striker Lima to leisurely sneak down...so amateurish.

To be fair, in this match, referee Ngoc Chau clearly saved the home team SG from a penalty kick when at the end of the second half, SG FC defender "wrestled" Phi Son when he entered the 16.5m box, but clearly the audience was disappointed with the way they lost.

Looking at goalkeeper Nguyen Manh with tears in his eyes, people are completely worried that such cold-hearted goals will continue to happen. The only thing is, SLNA's coaching board cannot know how many spectators will patiently come to the stadium to witness such goals.

AT