Will coach Park Hang-seo upgrade the Vietnam national team with a 3-man central midfield formation?

Keep the 3-center-back formation

When Coach Park Hang-seo came to Vietnam football, the first match he worked with the Vietnam National Team was the match against Afghanistan in the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers in November 2017. That was the match in which the Korean coach consulted the players, assistants and kept the familiar 4-4-2 formation to recognize the weaknesses and strengths of the Vietnam National Team.

Through analysis, Coach Park believes that the 4-defender formation cannot optimize the ability of the defensive players, is prone to mistakes, and from there, the Vietnam National Team began to be built on the formation of 3 central defenders, 3 defenders when attacking and 5 defenders when defending. The central defenders of the Vietnam National Team all have good ability to compete and "duel", so if they only play with 2 central defenders, not taking advantage of the attacking ability on both wings, it will be a big waste.

Vietnam National Team Lineup at 2022 World Cup Qualifiers. Photo: VFF

At the 30th SEA Games, Coach Park Hang-seo remained loyal to the 3-4-3 formation and only changed it to 3-5-2 at certain times and in each match. And in general, with a multi-layered defense system including 3 central defenders, 2 full-backs and a central midfielder, the playing style of the U23 Vietnam team and the Vietnam national team showed a very high level of certainty. The result was that at the 30th SEA Games, the Vietnam team only conceded 4 goals, 2 of which came from direct errors by the goalkeeper.

As for U23 Vietnam at the 2020 AFC U23 Championship, when the players' peak form was gone, the results were very sad when coach Park Hang-seo and his team played 3 matches, only scoring 1 goal in a 1-2 loss to North Korea. They conceded twice and were eliminated from the group stage.

At the national level, the most recent tournament was the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers. Vietnam played 5 matches but only conceded 1 goal. That was Indonesia's equalizer in the match that coach Park Hang-seo and his team won 3-1. The low number of goals conceded by Vietnam is a dream number for opponents in Group G because Thailand conceded 3 goals, UAE (4), Malaysia conceded 6 goals and Indonesia 16.

The Vietnam national team has many very good midfielders such as Tuan Anh, Hung Dung, Quang Hai, Hoang Duc... Photo: Trung Kien

On the contrary, the number of goals scored by the Vietnam team is not high with an efficiency of 1 goal/1 match, while Malaysia has 8 goals, Thailand has 6 goals, UAE has 8 goals. The strikers of the Vietnam team only played better than the bottom team Indonesia (3 goals). In the two matches against Thailand, the Vietnam team's defense still did not concede a goal, but the attack was not effective with the score of both home and away matches being 0-0.

Obviously, the Vietnamese national team defenders are familiar with the 3-center-back formation, the full-backs often join the attack, play as wingers and the role of the holding midfielder is becoming clearer. Surely coach Park Hang-seo will not abandon the tight defensive style that he has built for so long.

Need more guns

At the national team level, the defense of the Vietnam national team is still highly appreciated with the presence of quality central defenders such as Que Ngoc Hai, Tran Dinh Trong, Do Duy Manh, Bui Tien Dung; defenders Trong Hoang, Van Hau and goalkeeper Dang Van Lam. In the midfield, coach Park Hang-seo is still confident that the Vietnam national team has many good players, with many choices such as Hung Dung, Tuan Anh, Duc Huy, Huy Hung...

The simulated lineup of the Vietnam National Team with new tactics that can be applied. Graphics: TK

However, in his most recent interview with the media, Coach Park Hang-seo lamented that the V.League is not introducing many new faces. There are many reasons, the core of which is that clubs do not focus on youth training. They rarely let young players play. In addition, up to 80% of the teams in the V.League use foreign players in attack, leading to domestic strikers having few opportunities to play.

The lack of strikers is not only a story of the Vietnam national team but also a difficult problem for many high-class teams in the world. Currently, according to coach Park Hang-seo's calculations, in the center forward position, he can only screen and choose Nguyen Anh Duc, Ha Duc Chinh and Nguyen Tien Linh. Now, Anh Duc has retired from the national team. And the Korean coach and his colleagues must look for new factors besides Duc Chinh and Tien Linh.

In fact, many promising domestic strikers of the national team are still playing regularly, but they are not placed in the center forward position. Typically, Ho Tuan Tai of SLNA, Vu Quang Nam of Ho Chi Minh City Club. The case of Nguyen Xuan Nam - the player who scored 3 goals in V.League 2020 and 2 goals in AFC Cup is a rare case, but he is also just a striker who often comes off the bench.

Coach Park Hang-seo "reveals" his upcoming plans. Graphics: TK

This poses two problems for coach Park Hang-seo to upgrade the Vietnamese team at the same time, which are human resources and tactics. It is necessary to find new strikers and study more tactics to make the playing style more diverse.

For the first problem, teams need to invest in youth football. In particular, tournaments need to stipulate the number of young players that must be on the field in each match. This is a solution that some countries such as Japan and Korea have applied and the responsibility belongs to VFF, VPF and V.League teams.

In the second problem, the responsibility belongs to Coach Park and assistant Lee Young-jin, because it is clear that the team's playing style has been somewhat "figured out". In addition to 3-5-2 with 2 strikers, the team's coaching staff will likely "introduce" at least 2 other tactical diagrams in the near future, which are 3-1-4-2 (1 defensive midfielder) or 3-4-1-2 with 2 strikers to have more attacking options.

If applying this formation, the Vietnam national team will have 3 central midfielders and ensure 2 central strikers. Graphics: TK

In case Vietnam National Team applies these two additional tactical diagrams, Coach Park Hang-seo may waste players who are usually used when playing 3-4-3 such as Van Duc, Cong Phuong, Van Toan in the attacking midfielder position (retreating striker). In return, the Korean coach can take advantage of the strength from the creative midfield. That is not to mention the options from set pieces and aerial combat based on a squad with the best physique ever.

Therefore, the players themselves will have to get used to constantly changing their playing style during the match. However, the ability to adapt to tactics and change tactics of Vietnamese players is still considered limited. Hopefully, by the end of the year, when the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers return along with the 2020 AFF Cup, the Vietnamese National Team will be "upgraded" successfully as desired and also an urgent requirement in the current context.

Discipline and 'steel' spirit of Vietnam National Team under coach Park Hang-seo (part 4)

(Baonghean.vn) - The mental strength of the Vietnam National Team under Coach Pack has been clearly demonstrated over the past 2 years, including friendly tournaments, in the most difficult situations. And first of all, discipline is put first by Coach Park, in specific actions and gestures.