SLNA foreign players: Peak and trough

Olaha, Memovic: Beauty and strength

Over the past 5 rounds, Olaha has scored 2 goals and created many opportunities for his teammates in favorable positions to finish. Olaha's masterpiece against Quang Nam is also SLNA's first goal of the new season, bringing the first victory to Nghe An fans.

In the second match, Olaha also had an extremely delicate pass for Khac Ngoc to score, but midfielder number 12 could not finish successfully, so the home team left Cua Ong stadium with only 1 point.

In the third round, striker number 7 continued to score in SLNA's 2-1 victory over B.Binh Duong.

Welcoming Olaha's return before the season started was a wise move by SLNA's leadership. Photo: Thanh Cuong

During the away match at Hang Day Stadium, although he did not score any goals against the capital team, Olaha was still the most enthusiastic player on the field and received the most compliments from fans after the match.

In the last round, Olaha continued to shoulder the responsibility of scoring goals alone when his attacking teammate Alves dos Santos left the field early due to a foul.

Although he did not score a goal of his own, Olaha, with his speed and technique, and his teammates made Thanh Hoa's defense exhausted with sharp transitions from defense to attack.

If he had been luckier, SLNA's number 7 could have scored if his shot after receiving a pass from Vo Ngoc Toan had not hit the crossbar and bounced out regretfully.

While Olaha played aggressively in attack, in defense, center back Memovic with his superior height, good judgment and interception ability has helped SLNA many times neutralize dangerous attacks from the opponent.

In the past matches, Memovic has always shown his ability to choose positions and resolve situations very reasonably. The presence of the number 4 center back has helped Hoang Van Khanh to have a much lighter burden with high ball situations, which is the main attack of many teams in the current V.League.

Memovic's presence makes SLNA's defense much more solid. Photo: Trung Kien

Of the 5 goals SLNA has conceded so far, 4 have come from away matches. If it weren't for Memovic in defense, the Nghe An team could have suffered a much heavier defeat.

Up to now, having the service of top foreign players like Olaha and Memovic in the current difficult economic conditions can be considered a lucky thing for the Vinh home team.

Alves dos Santos with great disappointment

Marcio Alves is one of the faces who came to SLNA for a trial quite late but soon made an impression with his tall physique, speed and good finishing ability.

However, after 5 rounds, there is only 1 out of 3 things that people can recognize in this player, which is the advantage in physique. In terms of speed, this player has not shown much in the past matches, all those who are interested in and follow SLNA cannot help but be annoyed when seeing striker number 19 walking slowly on the field.

Alves dos Santos has not integrated yet or is his ability limited to that? Photo: Trung Kien

His finishing ability has not been proven yet when he was on the field in the first 5 matches of V.League 2019, but Alves dos Santos has not been able to score a goal for himself. He only had one shot hit the crossbar in the match against Hanoi FC - that is what the player from Brazil has done up to this point.

In addition to the bright spots that were only proven during the trial period, the foreign player who played in J-League 1 also has an extremely impressive record of penalty cards. 7 yellow cards in 2017, 3 red cards and 3 yellow cards in 2018 are numbers that do not lie.

And in SLNA's recent match against Thanh Hoa, this player revealed his weakness in controlling his emotions. When being harassed by the opposing player, SLNA's number 19 did not hesitate to openly and brutally retaliate right in front of the referee. The red card that this player received did not make SLNA pay the price against a Thanh Hoa team in crisis.

Hopefully, sitting out 2 matches will help this player calm down and reflect on himself so as not to make the already difficult team even more difficult.

Hopefully, Alves dos Santos will soon integrate into the team's playing style and regain his "killer" instinct before it's too late and he has to leave the team before his contract ends.