Center back Nhu Thanh: "Coach Park's team has individuals who know how to make a difference"

"Every team that wants to perfect their playing style needs a lot of time. We cannot expect the current U23 players to play like the senior U23 players at the 2018 Asian tournament," said former center back Nhu Thanh."The generation of players who brought many miracles to Vietnamese football have played together for many years. Remember, the generation of players who won the second place in the U23 Asia Championship had failed at the 2017 SEA Games before that."

In fact, if we look at the results, it is clear that U23 Vietnam is currently still getting the maximum points after 2 matches, that is the most important thing. As for the playing style, no one denies that the current generation of players is not as good as Cong Phuong, Phan Van Duc... However, we need to have an impartial perspective like the central defender Nhu Thanh said above.

U23 Vietnam had an unconvincing performance against U23 Indonesia. Photo: Van Cuong

Young players currently do not have many opportunities to compete, most of them rarely play in the V.League arena. The 2020 AFC U23 Qualifiers are an important tournament but a rare opportunity for young players to compete together.

According to Nhu Thanh, there are still bright spots to hope for a good future for this generation of players. In the current U23 team, we have seen a few factors that could be the future of Vietnamese football such as: Hoang Duc, Tan Sinh, Viet Hung...

However, according to Nhu Thanh, U23 Vietnam will transform in the match against Thailand. Photo: Van Cuong

U23 Vietnam is facing a difficult problem called U23 Thailand, a team that has had a great performance after 2 matches. They won 4-0 against U23 Indonesia before turning U23 Brunei into a basket with 8 goals.

If U23 Vietnam cannot beat Thailand, the chance of advancing to the next round is not high. U23 Vietnam has only one goal for the upcoming decisive match, which is to defeat the "war elephants" Thailand right at My Dinh Stadium today (March 26).

Talking about the opportunity against the Thais, former center back Nhu Thanh has great faith in a favorable result for the home team:"After the first two matches, the organization of U23 Vietnam was not good, but I believe it will gradually improve after each match. Hopefully, in the match against U23 Thailand, U23 Vietnam will really show a different face compared to before."

"Mr. Park's team has individuals who know how to make a difference, typically Quang Hai. Hai always solves problems whenever he has the ball at his feet. Objectively speaking, Hai has not yet achieved his best form, but when he falls into a difficult situation, I believe that the instinct of a big star in Hai will rise strongly," said the former center-back.