Song Lam Nghe An and the problem of ball control and finishing

The style of play that coach Pham Anh Tuan is building for SLNA is a tight defense, quick counter-attack. However, the transition after winning the ball from home to the front line is quite slow. The reason comes from the fact that SLNA midfielders are still limited in their ability to pass long and change the direction of attack.

SLNA's transition situations are heavily dependent on goalkeeper Van Viet and central defender Zaracho, Nguyen Hoang, players with good long passing ability at SLNA. Meanwhile, Quang Vinh and especially Quang Tu do not have many accurate long passes.

In the situation where VAR denied a goal in the first minutematch against Ho Chi Minh CityRecently, the person who passed the ball to B. Kuku was the center back Zaracho. This was a typical attacking situation of the 3-5-2 (or 5-3-2) formation. However, unfortunately, Quang Vinh's beautiful goal after the run up to finish was not recognized because Kuku was in an offside position before.

SLNA’s ability to transition from defense to attack is heavily dependent on the strikers. Olaha and Kuku have to retreat deep because of “hunger for the ball” which often happens in recent matches. Obviously, the absence of Phan Ba ​​Quyen in midfield is making SLNA really difficult in the midfield problem.

To be able to organize attacks or counter-attacks, ensuring the safety of the goal, the role of the midfielder is very important. In recent matches, midfielder Quang Tu has not really done well in this role. There are still many goals conceded from situations 2, right near the 16m50 line and most of them do not have fierce pressure from Quang Tu, Xuan Tien or Quang Vinh. The role of these 3 players on the field is not really clear, although Xuan Tien has gradually started to regain his playing feeling. All 3 are not players with leadership qualities in the middle of the field, holding the ball, controlling well and distributing the tempo of the match.

SLNA is really lacking players like Quoc Vuong, Van Binh, Quang Tinh or Khac Ngoc before or lacking a foreign player for this position. However, it is difficult to exchange a foreign striker for a foreign midfielder in the V.League where only 3 foreign player slots are registered.

According to Fstat statistics, in the past matches, Song Lam Nghe An has had a rather low ball control rate. In the most recent match, the Nghe An team played quite well in the first half, but quickly lost the game in the second half to the opponent. During the entire 90 minutes, the home team SLNA only controlled the ball at a rate of 40%.

This number in the draw with Q. Binh Dinh was 45%, the loss against T. Nam Dinh was 45.1%, the draw with HL Ha Tinh was 45.2%, the loss against HAGL was 44% and the draw with SHB Da Nang was 43%. Overall, Song Lam Nghe An's ball control rate was only 47%.

Understandably, the 5-defender style of play is not a possession-based style, but the numbers and reality on the field show that SLNA's young midfielders cannot control the midfield, they lose the ball or are overwhelmed too much. When there is no ball to play, it is easy for the players' physical strength to quickly decline and they depend too much on counter-attacks.

The fact that the midfield did not play its role well, forcing Olaha to retreat deep, also made the coordination between him and striker B. Kuku not really good. Striker B. Kuku had 1 goal from a free kick and 1 goal from a teammate Long Vu, along with 2 assists. There was only 1 assist for Olaha. There were many situations where B. Kuku could not receive Olaha's passes because of a lack of understanding, causing the opportunity to pass regrettably.

Statistics also show that SLNA is wasting too many opportunities. In the recent match against TP. HCM, SLNA had 16 shots compared to 7 of their opponents, but only 5 were on target and 0 goals were scored. SLNA's average shot rate per match after 6 matches is relatively high in V.League with 9.67 shots/match, on target an average of 5 shots/match but only 4 goals were scored.

Regarding SLNA's defense, they have suffered serious losses recently due to persistent and continuous injuries, conceding 9 goals. However, in the recent match against Ho Chi Minh City, with Van Cuong, Nguyen Hoang, Zaracho, Van Thanh and Van Huy, the 5-man defense system of Song Lam Nghe An has begun to create a sense of security. That is the reason why Dinh Hoang was not used in the last match even though he was ready to return.

Anyway, to run a match, to win, the first thing is to ensure defense. And once there are opportunities but cannot take advantage and solve the match with goals, it is understandable that SLNA has not known victory in 6 matches. Hopefully, Coach Pham Anh Tuan and his colleagues will have a way to improve these things in the upcoming period to have the first victory./.