Concerns arising from Nguyen Van Quyet's victory.
(Baonghean.vn) - With 9 goals, the player nicknamed Quyet "the Forest" has become the top domestic scorer, or the top domestic goalscorer, in V.League 2023.
It's worth noting that Nguyen Van Quyet wasn't playing as a center forward and was also suspended for 8 matches. If it weren't for his unsportsmanlike conduct towards assistant referee Hoang Pham Cong Khanh, the number 10 player's goal tally would certainly have been much higher.
It's safe to say that Nguyen Van Quyet's victory didn't bring joy to Vietnamese football fans. It reflects the poor performance of domestic strikers, at least in the 2023 season. Could it be that the striker crisis in Vietnamese football is becoming increasingly serious?
According to the list of 31 players for the Vietnamese national team preparing for the friendly match against the Palestinian national team, the forward line has a total of 5 players. Besides Nguyen Tien Linh, there are Nguyen Cong Phuong, Nguyen Van Toan, Pham Tuan Hai, and Vu Quang Nam.
While the duo of Nguyen Cong Phuong and Nguyen Van Toan have been underwhelming in Japan and South Korea, the remaining three strikers haven't fared much better. The biggest disappointment is none other than Nguyen Tien Linh, currently playing for Becamex Binh Duong.
Despite being considered the top scorer for the Vietnamese national team at the moment, the player born in 1997 has only managed a meager 3 goals in 18 appearances, totaling 1272 minutes. This clearly shows Nguyen Tien Linh's ineffectiveness in front of the opponent's goal.
Clearly, the striker's ineffective goal-scoring record has significantly impacted the team's overall performance. This is why Nguyen Tien Linh has been criticized by coach Le Huynh Duc on numerous occasions in front of the media.
Fortunately, the Vietnamese national team will not participate in the 2024 Asian Cup until January next year. This gives Nguyen Tien Linh and other forwards "planned" for the Vietnamese national team plenty of time (about 4 months) to rediscover their goal-scoring instincts.
It seems that coach Philippe Troussier and his staff will have a tough time figuring out the attacking options for the Vietnamese national team. And it's puzzling that the best Vietnamese striker in the 2023 V.League, Nguyen Van Quyet, is absent from this training camp.