Indonesia team lost heavily, not because of… Coach Mcmenemy

With the loss to Vietnam, coach Simon and the Indonesian team ended the first 4 matches in Group G, the second qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup with 0 points and 14 goals conceded. The Indonesian team is at the bottom of the table and officially has no chance of advancing.

What the hell are you doing Simon?

On many major Indonesian websites, Indonesian fans also created a Hashtag called #Simonout, calling for the Scottish strategist to immediately leave the national team's hot seat.

“What the hell are you doing Simon?”, “We had never lost to Vietnam in the past 2 decades before Simon came and ruined everything”.

When confident, defender Duy Manh can also score. Photo: AP

When the army loses, "beheading the general" is what has been done on the football field for a long time and the fate of coach Mcmenemy is probably only a matter of days, but it must be affirmed that the Scottish coach has done his best.

In the first two matches against Malaysia and Thailand, coach Mcmenemy let the Indonesian team play with a 3-defender formation, conceding 5 goals, including a 2-3 loss to Malaysia at home.

Starting from the away match against UAE, the Indonesian team played with 4 defenders and conceded 8 goals, 5 goals against UAE and 3 goals against Vietnam. Coach Mcmenemy has 3 goalkeepers, he used all 3, in the first two matches Andritany Ardhiyasa conceded 5 goals, in the third match Wawan Hendina conceded 5 goals and in the match against Vietnam Muhammad Ridho also conceded 3 goals.

After 3 matches, more than half of the goals conceded (out of 11 conceded) were from high balls, the Scottish strategist called up the newly naturalized Brazilian defender Otavio Dutra, who is 1m88 tall. This can be considered the best central defender in Indonesian football, but he still cannot keep up with Van Hau, a player who is 1.85m tall. So is it the fault of this military strategist?

After the humiliating 2-3 loss to Malaysia, coach Simon McMenemy was heavily criticized for allegedly not using all of Indonesia’s football talent. He immediately changed the squad for the next 3 matches, but then people saw how the naturalized foreign players or the Indonesian warriors performed on the field.

Even in the match against Mr. Park Hang-seo, he decided to change almost the entire squad that lost 0-5 to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Only captain Yanto Basna and striker Bento Goncalves were named in the starting lineup. The defense had newly naturalized center-back Otavio Dutra and goalkeeper number 3 Muhammad Ridho.

But while 39-year-old striker Bento was just an opportunity in attack, captain Yanto Basna became a sinner on the Kapten I Wayan Dipta field. In football terms, defender Basna scored a hat-trick of mistakes that led to 3 goals.

Captain Yanto Basna was confused in the clearance to allow Duy Manh to score the opening goal. This number 16 center back illegally blocked Hung Dung, causing the Indonesian team to receive a penalty and Que Ngoc Hai scored the second goal.

Trong Hoang's through ball for Tien Linh to score was considered quite creative and surprising. However, Yanto Basna was the one who made a positional mistake that prevented him from catching up with "youngest uncle" Tien Linh, not to mention that the captain role of this number 16 throughout the match was also quite dim.

BicyIndonesia has a lot of work to do.

During the 90 minutes of play, only Riko Simanjuntak (8) played on par with the Vietnamese players. Photo: AP

In the 90 minutes of play, only Riko Simanjuntak (8) played on par with the Vietnamese players, so the loss was not solely the fault of coach Simon McMenemy. Indonesian football currently does not have many talents, that is not Simon's fault.

Up to now, coach Simon McMenemy has lost heavily to 4 colleagues, namely Tan Cheng-Hoe, Nishino Akira, Bert van Marwijk, Park Hang-seo. Maybe Indonesian fans are too enthusiastic, putting their faith in the Scottish coach's victory, but in terms of level, except for coach Tan Cheng-Hoe, all have a level and achievements that are far superior to Simon McMenemy.

Indonesian football has a lot of work to do, from the Federation level to the clubs in terms of development strategy and implementation. The dismissal or resignation of Mr. Simon McMenemy is not the core factor to improve the level of the national team of thousands of islands.