Mourinho's philosophy and the story of Song Lam Nghe An, Hoang Anh Gia Lai

In fact, Jose Mourinho's football philosophy has helped many teams succeed. In this season's V. League, the defending champion Hanoi with a very strong attack has scored 60 goals, only conceding 30 goals.

If they did not rest their troops for the National Cup semi-finals and conceded 4 goals, Hanoi would likely have the least number of goals conceded. But for the mountain town and SLNA, things did not happen like that!

Blunt attack, solid defense

SLNA, this season "blunt attack, solid defense". Photo VPF

This season, SLNA is the team with the best defense in V.League. After 26 matches, they only conceded 26 goals, especially at Vinh Stadium, they only conceded 7 goals in 13 matches. Up to 8 matches of SLNA ended with a score of 0-0 in 11 draws of the Nghe team.

But in the end, SLNA only finished 7th in the season, in the middle group of V. League, behind B.Binh Duong, Saigon, and newcomer Viettel. Although this year the team received an additional 20 billion VND from the new sponsor, the achievement was only 35 points, ranking 7th, far behind last season's 42 points, ranking 4th. Right at Vinh Stadium, there is a scene of "rich people giving birth to backwardness", more money does not mean better results.

Having 12/26 matches without scoring a goal has made the Nghe team's performance worse, even though the defense played very well. In football, if you don't score, you should never think about winning.

Although SLNA bought 3 foreign players, Olaha, Alves dos Santos and Vinicius, they only scored 10 goals in total, far less than 1 foreign player from other teams. Even if he was not injured, even Ho Tuan Tai (8 goals) would have had the same scoring efficiency as all 3 foreign players.

Olaha himself is not a bad player, but pulling him back too far into the home field has made the attacking force much thinner. The 10 players of the Nghe An team only scored 32 goals, and they concentrated in a few matches (won S.Khanh Hoa 4-1, won B.Binh Duong 5-1, HAGL 3-0), showing that SLNA currently does not have a creative player capable of opening the score to break the deadlock. The injuries of Van Duc, Tuan Tai, and Xuan Manh have caused difficulties for SLNA's coaching staff and they have no replacement players.

The midfield with names like Khac Ngoc, Ngoc Toan, Van Binh has reached the level of expertise, the opponent's attacks are all carefully studied so there are not many assists that lead to goals. SLNA's playing style still depends more on the speed and strength of the attacking players than creating many unexpected passes.

Spend all youth to stay in the league

The mountain town team has both domestic top scorer Minh Vuong with 12 goals, assist king Van Toan with 11 assists (and 9 goals) but still finished the season in 8th place. Photo: VPF

With HAGL, everything is going in the opposite direction of SLNA. Mr. Duc did not hesitate to declare: "If the team plays well, it will still be happy even if they lose!". Relying on the short passing style, Van Toan, Minh Vuong, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong... have made the mountain town audience ecstatic.

Despite the fact that HAGL was the team that conceded the most goals after the first leg, coach Lee Tae-hoon still only added 3 attacking players. Either this Korean coach does not have the power to buy and sell players or he is too optimistic about his skills, so that for the 5th consecutive time, his students had to "Spend their youth to... compete for relegation!"

HAGL’s attack scored 45 goals, only 60 goals less than the champion Hanoi, but the defense conceded… 46 goals. The mountain town team had both the domestic top scorer with 12 goals and the assist king with 11 assists (and 9 goals) but still finished the season in 8th place.

Mr. Duc’s motto of playing beautifully and contributing is not wrong, but in football, the ultimate measure is still victory and achievement, not just eye candy. Players still need medals and titles, not just playing to… stay in the league.