Song Lam Nghe An: From 'tough and decisive' playing style to a team winning style award

It is completely reasonable to evaluate SLNA as one of the most beautiful teams in V.League 2020. Last year, the team led by coach Ngo Quang Truong did not have a single red card. This is a remarkable change in SLNA's playing style. Because only Hanoi, Viettel and HL Ha Tinh can do this.

In 2018, when led by coach Nguyen Duc Thang, the Nghe An team also received a red card in a fierce competition like V.League but still finished in 4th place. The bad reputation of "cutting nails and cutting iron" is in the past, there is still the passion in the playing style of young players, but the title "V.League 2020 Style Team" is a very worthy reward in the effort to improve the professional quality of SLNA's coaching staff.

SLNA is the team that won the Style Award at V.League 2020. Photo: BTC

Not only the first team participating in V.League, in 2020, the U17 SLNA and U21 SLNA teams won the National Championship and the runner-up were also the teams receiving the style award. Obviously, SLNA players are still capable of dominating the matches without having to rely too much on aggressive tackles that can easily cause injury to themselves and their opponents.

One of the bright spots of SLNA is the quality of the defense. Without Que Ngoc Hai and Pham Manh Hung, the defense under the command of Hoang Van Khanh in the past 2 years has been highly appreciated. In 2019, SLNA was the team with the most solid defense of the season with only 26 goals conceded. In 2020, SLNA was also the team with the best defense in group B with only 21 goals conceded.

Fierce and determined, but SLNA is no longer known as "cutthroat". Photo: Xuan Thuy

To achieve this, SLNA's coaching staff and especially coach Nguyen Huy Hoang have worked hard to build a defensive counter-attacking style of play. Defensive situations, receiving the opponent's attacks have become proactive in an organized and scientific way. This is far different from the traditional, physical, and concentrated defense in the past.

In fact, SLNA's defensive counter-attacking style of play will become ineffective if the ability to finish and convert chances into goals has not been improved. This is a very difficult problem because in V.League 2020, there were periods when SLNA needed 158 minutes and 14 shots to score 1 goal.

Official match schedule of Song Lam Nghe An in the first leg of V.League 2021

(Baonghean.vn) - The 2021 V.League National Championship, taking place from January 16, includes 14 teams. The competition format is divided into 2 phases. In phase 1, 14 clubs will play a round robin to determine the 6 leading teams in phase 1 (group A) to compete for the championship, while the 8 bottom teams (group B) will compete for relegation in phase II.