Reflecting on SLNA's tactics from Euro 2020

Story of 2 commanders

The Italian team under coach Mancini only played a 4-2-3-1 formation to win the championship.Euro 2020and set a record of 34 unbeaten matches in the admiration of all of Europe. But few people know that the Italian coach had to replace 5 out of 6 players in the forward and midfield positions twice. Only central midfielder Jorginho, who is playing for the Champions League champions, is an irreplaceable player.

It is still a tactical diagram that is considered relatively popular in European football fields, but D.Berardi, F.Bernardeschi, A.Belotti entered the field, the playing style of the team in the Azure shirt is different from C.Immobile, L.Insigne, F.Chiesa. Entering the starting lineup, C.Immobile played as a striker with the ability to play independently, passing 2,3 defenders but did not use many pieces, maneuvering in a narrow area, slow ball like D.Berardi. Even the playing style of the Italian team's wing midfielders also has many differences. M.Verratti tends to hold the ball, attract opposing players to score, while Locatllie is strong in handling fast dribbling phases.

Kalajdzic is the first player to score against Italy at EURO 2020. File photo

Coach Mancini's talent is to look at the game situation on the field to use his players and in fact at Wembly Stadium, he is much better than his counterpart on the England team. Playing away, losing early but still turning the game around, apart from Coach Mancini, not many people can do it.

Meanwhile, coach Southgate is different. In the 7 matches at Euro 2020, there are 2 important matches against the German rival and the final match, the England team plays with the 3-4-3 formation. In fact, with 26 players at hand, coach Southgate can arrange many different formations. Southgate uses the German tactic to counter Joachim Löw, because he believes that his wingers are of a higher level and will surely win.

In the final, Coach Southgate directed to exploit the weakness of the Italian team's left wing and then suddenly turned to the right for L.Shaw to score. The script was played out exactly as planned, but unfortunately when Coach Mancini turned the table, he quickly returned to the 4-2-3-1 formation, and the two "bulldozers" D.Rice and K.Phillips could not compete with the Italians and gradually lost the game.

Family story

Back to storySLNA, the history of more than 40 years of the Nghe An team has mainly used only 2 types of formations: 3-5-2 (under coach Thanh Vinh) and 4-4-2 as it is now. Center back Huu Thang emerged on the left wing in SLNA's shirt when he joined Thanh Long and Van Luu in a 3-defender formation.

When foreign players landed on the Vietnamese football field, many teams, including SLNA, switched to a 4-defender formation, and when they needed to protect the score, they changed to 4-5-1 by asking a striker to play low. Olaha is the striker who plays low, deserving the unofficial title of "the striker with the best defensive ability in V.League".

SLNA players practice, preparing for the relegation battle. Photo: Duc Anh

The positive side of SLNA's youth teams to the first team is that the players integrate quickly. But on the downside, the monotony in tactics, and the lack of reserve players to refresh the 4-4-2 style of play like the Italian team, makes SLNA easy to predict. Except for a few teams that like to play offensively like HAGL, Saigon FC, when coming to Vinh Stadium, the bad grass and unfavorable weather will have difficulties. Teams that are considered weaker, often present in relegation races like Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa, S.Khanh Hoa, all have no difficulty when meeting SLNA, regardless of home or away.

Compared to Duc Thang and Quang Truong, coach Huy Hoang has more "reckless" professional decisions, and the management mechanism under Tan Long also allows this young coach to do that. I wonder if, after watching Euro 2020, Huy Hoang and SLNA's coaching staff, in addition to renewing the squad, have they thought about innovating the playing style?