The "transformation" in Phan Van Duc's playing style

At SLNA, Phan Van Duc plays as a left winger in the familiar 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 formation of coach Nguyen Duc Thang. Duc “cot”’s main task at the Nghe An team last season was to score goals, although he was not a striker. Therefore, in V.League 2018, the player born in 1996 was the player with the most goals for SLNA, with 9 goals.

However, in the national teams (U23 Vietnam, Olympic Vietnam and Vietnam National Team), Phan Van Duc plays as a left striker in the 3-4-3 formation of Coach Park Hang-seo. Since taking on this position at the U23 Asian Cup, Duc "the tiger" has shown his continuous progress with important contributions to the home team in recent tournaments.

Phan Van Duc not only did well in scoring goals....Photo source

At the 2018 AFC U23 Championship held in Changzhou (China) earlier this year, Phan Van Duc only contributed 1 goal and 1 assist for Nguyen Cong Phuong to score in the runner-up position of Vietnam U23. 7 months later, at the 18th Asian Games, the player from Yen Thanh shone again for the Vietnam Olympic team, contributing 1 goal and 2 assists, helping the home team finish in fourth place.

However, the above numbers are nothing when placed next to Phan Van Duc’s 2 goals and 4 assists at the AFF Cup 2018, before the second leg of the final. In the past 7 matches, there were only 2 matches where Duc “Cọt” did not contribute any goals or assists for the Vietnam team (the match against Laos and the match against Myanmar). And since the match in Myanmar until now, Duc “Cọt” has had at least 1 goal or 1 assist for the home team.

…also completed the construction task excellently.Photo: TK

In the first leg of the final on Malaysia's field, Phan Van Duc missed several scoring opportunities, but still created two "set-ups" for Nguyen Huy Hung and Pham Duc Huy to score against the opponent.

That is enough to evaluate the diversity and the sharpness in Phan Van Duc’s playing style. Currently, Phan Van Duc has had the same number of assists as midfielder Sanrawat Dechmirt of the Thai national team (4 times “setting the table” for his teammates to score).

From the 2018 AFC U23 Championship, ASIAD 18 to the 2018 AFF Cup, under the guidance of coach Park Hang-seo, Phan Van Duc is gradually becoming the "king of assists". Hopefully, in the upcoming second leg of the final, the player wearing the number 20 shirt will continue to shine to help the Vietnamese team win the championship, after 10 years of waiting./.