Holding breath waiting for Quang Truong to choose foreign players

More than anyone else, Coach Quang Truong understands the importance of foreign players this season. Simply put, when the team promotes many young players to play this season, the role of foreign players will be very important. Unlike other seasons, domestic players will find it difficult to "carry" foreign players throughout 26 rounds of the V.League.

Foreign players for which positions?

Fans expect to have quality foreign players like Iddi Batambuze and Hector. Photo: AT

In other words, the quality of SLNA's foreign players will directly affect the team's performance this season. Especially when there are many teams with abundant funds, in addition to 3 foreign players, they also buy naturalized players or overseas Vietnamese such as Tran Trung Hieu (Than Quang Ninh), midfielder Dinh Hoang Max (Sai ​​Gon), center back Steven Dang (HAGL), striker Do Merlo (Nam Dinh), center back Michal Nguyen, midfielder Martin Lo (Hai Phong), striker Hoang Vu Samson (Thanh Hoa)... This allows many teams to play with 2 foreign players (or naturalized players), some teams even play with 3 foreign players.

With the new goalkeeper, captain Van Khanh is more inclined towards blocking, aerial ability is not his strong point, making it likely that coach Quang Truong will have to choose a foreign defender. Not only is he tall and good at playing high balls, but this foreign player must also cover well after Van Khanh's "outstanding" moves.

More than anyone else, Quang Truong will remember his teammate Iddi Batambuze who won the V.League 2001 with SLNA. The Urganda trio of players, Iddi Batambuze, Lulenti and Tamale, with a salary of only 2,000 USD/month/person, were the backbone of the Vinh team's playing style. SLNA really needed a central midfielder like Iddi Batambuze, who played simply but was effective in both defense and attack.

SLNA's No. 14 midfielder was present at all the hot spots on the field, not only did a good job of disrupting the opponent's play, but also had smart assists based on his strong physical strength. Only appearing in the second leg of V.League 2001, Iddi Batambuze overshadowed the foreign players of V.League at that time.

In the 2001 Super Cup, in the first leg SLNA tied host TP.HCM 1-1, in the second leg Iddi Batambuze and Phi Hung scored 2 goals to help the Nghe team win the Cup to the joy and excitement of the Vinh stadium audience.

Later, SLNA also had a foreign midfielder, Hector, from Trinidad and Tobago, who played really impressively. Coming to SLNA from the 2011 season, this midfielder, who did not have the advantage of appearance, immediately had an extremely annoying playing style for any opponent. Hector can play as a central midfielder or left midfielder in the Nghe An team.

In the 2013 V.League season, before moving to play for Hanoi.T&T, the Trinidad and Tobago player who played in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers had 7 goals and 5 assists for SLNA.

Central midfielder needed

Olaha used to work very effectively for SLNA.

In the context of Khac Ngoc, Ngoc Toan leaving Vinh stadium, Van Binh retiring, SLNA really needs a foreign central midfielder to carry the midfield. Players Sy Sam, Quang Tinh have physical problems, young domestic players like Van Lam need to be deployed at each time to avoid being frozen when the opponent plays hard.

In the past 3 seasons, striker Olaha often plays low as the third central midfielder of the Nghe An team. This Nigerian foreign player is strong in the ability to compete and defend, but does not have the forte of creating like the previous foreign player Enock Kyembe. Olaha's low play has improved SLNA's ability to defend from a distance, but the player born in 1996 has only scored 18 goals after 3 seasons playing for the Nghe An team.

This season, SLNA needs a real central midfielder, not a foreign striker like in previous seasons. In fact, not every foreign striker has the defensive ability like M. Olaha. Meanwhile, with the financial capacity of SLNA, if using 2 foreign strikers without a conductor to create, it will be very difficult to get the desired 15-18 goals.

In the current context, choosing 3 foreign players with the quality as analyzed above is not a simple task for Quang Truong. But if they want to have a good season, SLNA's coaching board has no other choice.