Coach Troussier highly appreciates defender Ho Van Cuong

After the match where U23 Vietnam beat U23 Yemen 1-0 at Viet Tri Stadium (Phu Tho) on the evening of September 9 in Group C of the 2024 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers, coach Philippe Troussier shared his thoughts at a press conference.

"As a head coach, I have requirements on how the players continue to improve, aiming for future goals. In today's match, I am proud of the team's effort.

U23 Yemen actively defended in large numbers while counter-attacking directly. With the opponent playing deep, U23 Vietnam had difficulty finding space. At that time, set pieces were the difference," said coach Troussier.

"U23 Yemen defended in large numbers, taking advantage of quick counter-attacks to approach the goal, it was not easy for U23 Vietnam to find opportunities. Throughout the match, the players followed the tactics, we waited and launched the finishing blow.

The first half was a bit tense, so the team had many situations of passing errors and lack of precision. That created pressure in controlling the game. I made adjustments in the second half, Ho Van Cuong was the "trump card", in addition to Luong Duy Cuong replacing Ngoc Thang who had received a yellow card earlier.

Duy Cuong helped the Vietnamese defense become more solid and confident. This strengthened the team's confidence in the front line, then Vi Hao, Van Khang, Dinh Bac entered the field.

I don't want to use the word substitute, but those who finish and finish the game. Hopefully this will be reinforced and we will continue to improve in the future," the French coach shared.

"What I want is for the players to stick to the plan, play the ball, execute the game. The previous goals were random and lucky, there were times when that was needed, but a more modern approach is what I want to change.

That requires improving personal quality, making decisions early, without hesitation, and connecting more smoothly. The reality and trend of world football is that 95% of the time on the field is receiving the ball, passing the ball, except for Man City where it is 100%.

There are many matches where Vietnam only have 20% of the ball, the rest is contested time, set pieces. The approach I want to apply is to control the ball, although it is not always easy to penetrate the opponent's defense, but just one or two situations can end the match.

U23 Guam is not weak, we forced them to reveal their weakness. That is what we showed and are applying in the match against U23 Yemen. To play more smoothly, we need to continue to improve," said coach Philippe Troussier.

Regarding future plans, coach Troussier revealed: "10-15 young players can compete in the national team. If filtering 50 players on the national team, then 10-15 people come from the U23 group, I have noticed from the performance on the field and through training sessions. We need to improve further to find the strongest team, preparing for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in November.

Currently, I can give opportunities to players who do not get much playing time, because if I want to go far and aim for long-term goals, I cannot rely only on the 11 main players, or more broadly, the 23 registered players. We still have many more players who have not been used. Our goal is to arrange and prepare a balanced squad"./.