Coach Park Hang-seo and innovations in the Vietnam team

The Vietnamese team is preparing for the International Friendly Tournament. Photo: VFF

Refresh the attack

The international friendly football tournament was held in Ho Chi Minh City from September 21-27, including the host team Vietnam, Singapore and India. To prepare for the tournament, Coach Park Hang-seo decided to call up 31 players. In that list, Song Lam Nghe An only contributed 2 familiar faces - Que Ngoc Hai and Phan Van Duc.

Looking at the two guest teams participating in the tournament, experts can easily judge that these are mid-level teams and do not have any special strengths. So what factors made Coach Park choose these teams to compete with?

The first reason that can be seen is that Singapore will face Vietnam in Group B of the AFF Cup 2022. Therefore, this is an opportunity to help the Korean strategist identify the opponent's strength to avoid surprises when participating in the top tournament in the region.

The match with India will be an opportunity for Coach Park to test new tactics and new personnel. Most likely, he will let the newly called players demonstrate their abilities in front of the national team's coaching staff for most of the friendly matches.

In a statement to the press during this national team training session, coach Park Hang-seo expressed his intention to divide the team into three groups of players. He said: “Group one is the pillars, group two is the reserve group and group three is the new, young players - who can be considered the successors to the seniors. Therefore, the results of this training session are not very important, but instead, I want to increase the competitiveness between the reserve group and the successor group. If we achieve those goals, that's good, otherwise we have to learn and experiment more.”

In this training session, Coach Park Hang-seo called up 6 new faces including Phan Tuan Tai, Nguyen Thanh Nhan, Khuat Van Khang, Luong Duy Cuong, Nham Manh Dung and Pham Dinh Duy. Besides that, Nguyen Van Quyet, Doan Van Hau and Tran Dinh Trong returned. These are players who will certainly be used a lot by the team's coaching staff in the upcoming friendly matches. Among the above faces, fans pay special attention to 2 stars of Hanoi, Doan Van Hau and Nguyen Van Quyet.

According to the tactics that Coach Park often applies, the full-back position plays a very important role. Van Hau is a player who has just returned from injury, but in the past period of V.League 2022, this defender has gradually regained his form. His return is one of the quality additions to the Vietnam National Team's squad.

Van Quyet promises to bring new points to the playing style of the Vietnamese team. Photo: VFF

Van Quyet is the case that will bring interesting things to Coach Park's squad. The captain of Hanoi FC is a versatile player, capable of controlling the match. He is the one who always creates a great influence on his teammates. In the first leg of V.League 2022, Van Quyet played with brilliant form, an important factor contributing to Hanoi FC firmly holding the top position in the table.

Talking about the reason for calling Van Quyet, Coach Park Hang-seo said: “In V-League, Van Quyet is a good scorer. But to be honest, in the past in the national team, there was still something that he did not execute well the tactics that the coaching staff set out. Of course, certainly no player can execute all of the coach's tactics. Therefore, I am looking for the best tactical solution to promote his role.”

It can be seen that the Korean strategist is very serious about bringing this player back as an important link in the squad. If Van Quyet returns, Coach Park will have more diversity in approaching the opponent's goal.

In addition to the above two names, Dinh Duy and Khuat Van Khang are also very worthy players for the Vietnam National Team's coach to pay attention to, when he wants to find a new attacking style for the team.

“Without flour, you can make glue”, Coach Park Hang-seo has in his hands quality factors, the raw materials to help him create a new source of energy for the team. The two upcoming international friendly matches are extremely useful rehearsals for the above change of Coach Park.

Are the two Song Lam Nghe An players still valued?

With such a large number of personnel, there will certainly be fierce competition for the official position in the near future. We can easily see that in this concentration list, there are many quality central defenders who are in high form such as Thanh Chung, Duy Manh, Dinh Trong, Thanh Binh, Bui Tien Dung, Bui Hoang Viet Anh, Que Ngoc Hai...

Que Ngoc Hai will still be the leader in the defense of the Vietnamese team. Photo: FBNV

But after more than 4 years of coaching the national team, Coach Park Hang-seo has rarely made any changes in the defense, always considering the stability of the defense as the heart of the team. Therefore, the leadership role in the defense certainly still belongs to Que Ngoc Hai. The remaining 2 central defenders will most likely be Thanh Chung and Duy Manh.

In the front line, the presence of Van Quyet is creating quite an interesting competition for players like Van Duc, Van Toan, Cong Phuong... If Coach Park Hang-seo uses the 5-3-2 formation, Van Duc will likely be pulled down to play as a 3-man midfielder. This is Van Duc's familiar position at Song Lam Nghe An Club. He will both demonstrate his ability to recover the ball and support well in attacks. But if the team uses the 3-4-3 formation, Van Quyet will probably be the player playing in the left striker position. Then Van Duc will be Coach Park's breakthrough card when he is put on the field as a substitute. This way of playing is similar to the match between Vietnam and China, the second leg of the 3rd qualifying round of the World Cup. Van Duc entered the field in the second half, bringing a new breeze and scoring a super goal for the Vietnam team.

However, these are just subjective comments, because each player has his own strengths, the choice also depends on the form, as well as the way the coach operates the game. Therefore, the International Friendly Tournament is a tournament that will stimulate the curiosity of fans about the use of people, as well as the tactical changes of the coach of the Vietnam National Team.