Song Lam Nghe An and the 90 minute problem

After 8 matches, Song Lam Nghe An has 2 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses. In particular, Song Lam Nghe An's home record is undefeated with 1 win against Hoang Anh Gia Lai and 2 draws against The Cong - Viettel and Quang Nam. The most regrettable draw of Song Lam Nghe An at home was in the match against Quang Nam when the Nghe team ran out of steam and were equalized 4-4 in the 90th minute. Thus, at home, Song Lam Nghe An dropped 2 valuable points in round 4.

Away from home in round 2,Lam River Nghe Analso dropped 2 points on Ha Tinh field when leading the neighboring team 1-0. However, also in the 90+2 minute, a moment of lapse in concentration of Song Lam Nghe An's defense and the excellence of Dinh Thanh Trung caused the Nghe team to end the match with a 1-1 draw.

Most recently, in the match at Thong Nhat Stadium in round 7, they almost certainly got 1 point away from home, but defender Vuong Van Huy's mistake in the 90+1 minute caused the Nghe An team to suffer a bitter defeat with a minimal score. In total, in the 3 matches mentioned above, Song Lam Nghe An lost 5 points. The reason all came from goals conceded in the 90th minute.

And if the match only lasted 89 minutes or the young players of Song Lam Nghe An played with more courage and experience, the Nghe team would have had 14 points, a position in the top 5 instead of the top 10 as it is now. Of course, that is just an interesting hypothesis but it also shows that the problem of the young players of Song Lam Nghe An is the mentality of the match, physical strength at the end of the match and the way to control and regulate the match when leading.

In another statistic, this season, Song Lam Nghe An conceded 12 goals, an average of 1.5 goals/match. The reason may come from the instability of the defense due to injuries and cards, but the main thing is the unnecessary mistakes and because Song Lam Nghe An is using young players. Players like Van Viet, Van Huy, Ba Quyen, Van Thanh, Nguyen Hoang are all under 23 years old.

Only center back Mario Zebic is a bright spot in the defense but still cannot fill the gap left by Que Ngoc Hai. To solve this problem, coach Phan Nhu Thuat boldly used Quang Vinh to play as a central midfielder so that Nam Hai could retreat to play as a center back. However, the coaching staff of Song Lam Nghe An still needs to find a way to strengthen the defense, although they always have 5 defenders in front of the goal.

On the attacking front, Song Lam Nghe An only scored 9 goals, a rather modest achievement. Main striker Michael Olaha scored 3 goals but that was a hat-trick in a draw against Quang Nam. This player still needs to be more meticulous, improve his finishing, and take advantage of opportunities to score more goals for Song Lam Nghe An.

Not only often conceding goals from the 90th minute, Song Lam Nghe An also showed signs of running out of steam from the 60th to the 90th minute. Statistics show that in the last 30 minutes of the past 8 matches, Song Lam Nghe An has only scored 1 goal. Obviously, in the decisive moments of the match, coach Phan Nhu Thuat's students were not at their best to score or defend their achievements. That is the risk when using young players and the Song Lam Nghe An coaching staff probably anticipated this when taking the risk.

Another problem of Song Lam Nghe An is the way of using foreign player Raphael Success. After 8 matches, the Nigerian player has not shown any integration with the new team and has not scored any goals. The number of opportunities that Raphael has had is very small and Nghe An fans have not seen the common voice of the foreign striker pair Olaha - Raphael.

In the near future, Song Lam Nghe An will have two very important home matches after the break against MerryLand Quy Nhon Binh Dinh and Cong An Ha Noi before visiting Hai Phong. These are all matches that are predicted to be tough and challenging for Song Lam Nghe An. To be in the safe group, the coaching staff of Song Lam Nghe An and the young players with the youngest average age in V.League still have a lot to do. In particular, physical strength and concentration at the end of the match./.