Song Lam Nghe An is full of worries despite having enough domestic players to practice.

Increase your training volume

Since mid-July, Song Lam Nghe An has decided to gather for training. However, because the Vinh team's squad consists mostly of young players under the age of 21, a series of these personnel are serving the National U19 Team participating in the Southeast Asian U19 tournament and the Song Lam Nghe An U21 Team participating in the 2024 National U21 Tournament.

To maintain the physical strength and ball feel of the remaining 10 players in the squad, coach Pham Anh Tuan had to borrow players from U19 Song Lam Nghe An to conduct training exercises.

With the early elimination from the 2024 National U21 Tournament, up to this point, players such as Bui Thanh Duc, Phan Van Thanh, Nguyen Van Bach, Ngo Van Bac, Dinh Xuan Tien... have been present to start training with Team 1 Song Lam Nghe An. In addition, on July 31, after returning from the Vietnam U19 Team, Quang Vinh and Cao Van Binh were able to join their home team. As for young midfielder Long Vu, he is suffering from a minor injury, so he is still resting, but will soon return to training next week.

Thus, with the return of a series of players from youth tournaments, Song Lam Nghe An now has enough players to increase the training volume, preparing for the new season. However, the Nghe An team is still facing a storm of injuries when key players such as Ba Quyen, Nam Hai, Xuan Dai, and Ho Van Cuong are still unable to play. According to information from Song Lam Nghe An, Ho Van Cuong and Nam Hai only suffered minor injuries and will soon return in the next few days. As for Ba Quyen and Xuan Dai, they will only be able to join their teammates closer to the start of the 2024/25 season.

However, the absence of these players does not affect Song Lam Nghe An's ability to train too much. Because coach Pham Anh Tuan still has players like Quang Tu, Van Thanh, Dinh Hoang, Van Bach... to carry out the training plans set out by the coaching staff.

Witnessing the first training session of Song Lam Nghe An, it can be seen that, with the current personnel, coach Pham Anh Tuan is looking to build a team with a defensive counter-attacking style of play. In particular, the coach born in 1970 is trying to create a fiery playing style, using youth as the strength of the home team.

In addition, coach Pham Anh Tuan also emphasizes discipline and relies entirely on collective play that does not depend on any specific individual. In parallel, the Song Lam Nghe An Coaching Board also builds a lesson plan to help players regulate the rhythm of play, thereby avoiding exhaustion at the end of the match. This will also be a suitable exercise to improve and overcome the limitations of the current Song Lam Nghe An personnel.

full of worries

"Up to now, Song Lam Nghe An has rarely transferred domestic players from other clubs, but mainly used the force trained by the club itself. Perhaps in previous years, the team only recruited personnel to serve the goalkeeper position. And this new season is no exception, Song Lam Nghe An will promote players from youth teams to gradually approach the V-League environment. We will "cut our coat according to our cloth", so that Song Lam Nghe An will have the most effective playing style", that is the statement of coach Pham Anh Tuan to the press during the training session for the new season.

Thus, with the departure of 4 players including: goalkeeper Van Tien, defender Mai Sy Hoang, midfielder Dang Van Lam, midfielder Nguyen Van Viet, Song Lam Nghe An will have to promote at least 4 players from the youth team. So which 4 names will be "chosen to entrust"? Except for goalkeeper Nguyen Bao Ngoc, born in 2007, who will almost certainly wear the Team 1 shirt in the new season.

The rest will most likely have to wait until the end of August for the Song Lam Nghe An Coaching Board to make a final decision. However, these 4 new faces will also find it difficult to win official positions and create surprises in coach Pham Anh Tuan's tactical scheme. Perhaps this is just an opportunity for Nghe An's talents to experience the highest football environment in Vietnam, thereby maturing sooner in the future.

Therefore, the faces considered "older" will still be the pillars of Song Lam Nghe An for the new season. The question is, with such personnel, can the Vinh team escape the hardships of the 2023/24 season?

Coach Pham Anh Tuan is still optimistic about the improvement of Song Lam Nghe An in the new season. That is well-founded, because most of the Nghe team's players have matured significantly after 1 year of training in the V-League. However, they are still too young to have enough experience to maintain stability in both form and fitness for an entire season.

In addition, the substitutes also have a level and playing experience quite different from the main character. In order for Song Lam Nghe An to avoid the situation they encountered last season, they must definitely possess quality foreign players. Fortunately, Olaha agreed to stay, and what Song Lam Nghe An needs to do is find foreign players with better abilities than Success or Mario. If Song Lam Nghe An solves this problem, they can hope to escape the difficult situation like in the 2023/24 season. Hopefully, when entering the new season, with effective changes, Song Lam Nghe An will regain the love of Nghe An fans.