Why did SLNA score few goals in the 2019 V.League season?

Those who know SLNA well all see that the Nghe An team’s strength is still its defense. If they can overcome their ability to defend against high balls, Nguyen Manh’s goal will be sealed. Furthermore, after Van Quyen, SLNA has not produced any notable stars… Many players only emerged in the National U21 tournament and then disappeared. Many young players could not stay at Vinh Stadium and had to wander around, such as Quang Nam and Dinh Bao.

"Lack of" star striker

Even Ho Tuan Tai, the SLNA player who scored the most goals for the Nghe An team (8 goals), took 4 years to achieve that achievement. In the 2018 season, Tuan Tai played 11 matches but only played 7 matches for the full 90 minutes, so he only scored 2 goals. It was not until this year that Tuan Tai had the opportunity to shine before being injured at the end of the season.

The two SLNA foreign players in the forward line, if Olaha is more good at creating than scoring, Vinicius is quite picky about the ball, his scoring form is not stable. Except for the hat-trick at Go Dau Stadium (B.Binh Duong), this foreign player has almost disappeared. The fact that both Olaha and Vinicius only have 5 goals each, is hard to call stable compared to other foreign players playing on Vietnamese football fields.

Teammates celebrate with Ho Tuan Tai, SLNA player who scored 8 goals in V.League 2019. Photo: Duc Anh

In recent seasons under coach Duc Thang, SLNA has played a defensive counter-attacking style, giving the game to the opponent. Perhaps part of it comes from the players SLNA currently has, the rest comes from the tactical thinking of the Nghe An coaches.

In 26 matches this season, SLNA only had 7 matches with more possession than the opponent. In many matches, the Nghe An team had only about 40% possession, showing that SLNA's midfield has many problems that need to be solved.

Monotonous style of play

Due to the inability to hold the ball and launch attacks from the home field, most of the goals were scored from counter-attacks (14/32 goals). Only 10/32 goals were scored from set-piece attacks from the home field, and 7/32 goals were scored from set-piece attacks.

SLNA players celebrate the goal together. Photo: Archive

The formation is low, the number of attacking players is often less than the opponent's, so SLNA has difficulty scoring. Even the goals that Tuan Tai scored were mostly due to his sensitivity in choosing a position to receive the ball rather than arranging passes in front of the opponent's goal.

Low ability to take advantage of opportunities

SLNA strikers are also having problems taking advantage of opportunities in each match. Analyzing the 0-0 draw with the away team S.Khanh Hoa, the home team Vinh had 63% possession, had 10 shots but only 3 were on target and ultimately did not score any goals. The number of only 2 corner kicks also shows that the attacking pressure was not great, despite having nearly twice as much possession as the away team.

In the first leg, with a strong force, Hanoi defeated SLNA with a quick score of 4-0. Photo courtesy of HNFC

Coach Duc Thang and his team still have exemplary matches of defensive counter-attacking style, typically the 5-1 victory over B.Binh Duong at Go Dau Stadium. In this match, although they only controlled the ball 47%, had 8 shots, but 6 were on target and brought back 5 goals.

An Thanh