V-League and the story of the final season contract
(Baonghean.vn) - Hoang Anh Gia Lai's recent streak of 7 consecutive matches without a win is considered by experts to be due to a lack of squad depth, meaning there is a significant difference between the regular main players and the reserve players, meaning there is a lack of measures to use young players regularly and appropriately. At first glance, this makes sense as the V-League is a long-term, fierce competition, with no room for superficiality. But looking closely at the situation at the mountain town team, is it true that the story is true but not only that?
Everyone knows that the current squad of Hoang Anh Gia Lai, until the 2022 V-League season, will compete with the core of the famous U19 generation, the generation that together with U23 Vietnam created the miracle in Thuong Chau 2018 and other successes of Vietnamese football, plus defensive stars from other teams (Huu Tuan, Tuan Linh...) and foreign players, under the skillful leadership of Kiatisuk. That is a generation of talented players, going from U19 youth football straight to professional football, with the ambition of "playing for fun" of Mr. Duc, so in reality, they "spent their youth to stay in the league".
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SLNA Youth. Photo courtesy of Hai Hoang |
When bringing Kiatisuk to the Mountain City, Mr. Duc of course had new ambitions, new opportunities to make everyone see that his team was a potential "candidate" for the championship and they proved it in the 2021 pandemic season. They continued to prove their potential in the friendly tournament before the 2022 V-League started. But when entering the real tournament, things were not simple, suddenly rising, suddenly slowing down in an incomprehensible way? That was the beginning with 5 matches without a win, then 5 consecutive wins and now 7 consecutive matches without a win (including 5 wins, 7 draws, 5 losses, scoring 18 goals, conceding 17 goals).
If looking at the game, Hoang Anh Gia Lai always maintains a free and fiery attack. But the effectiveness is what the strikers do not do well, although Van Toan has recently really returned to his true self (the team that has scored the most goals to date is 27 goals, such as Hai Phong or Binh Dinh). In addition, the domestic and foreign players assigned to defend, to compensate for the previous weakness, creating balance for today, often run out of strength, loose at the end of the match, combined with the midfield's eagerness to advance, so they lose the important factor of defending from a distance.
Of course, Kiatisuk does not want his team to play on that downward sine curve. Mr. Duc does not and the fans of the Mountain City as well as the whole country never want to see that happen after each exciting weekend.
In fact, the story has been around for a long time, the problem is that people do not want to look at it proactively. That is the famous training ground of Mr. Duc that has actually produced a generation of good players with Cong Phuong, Van Toan, Xuan Truong, Van Thanh... but if they really compete, this formation, this style of play is very easy to predict, bankrupt when facing teams that play balanced, strong, and calculating. The fact that they were brought straight to the V-League is not necessarily good because the long process of failure, constantly fighting relegation, made them "discouraged" not only in a few seasons. Moreover, the process of being called up to the national teams also made them play brilliantly, but also made them "afraid" of football like the process of playing in the recent World Cup qualifiers.
And now, the 2022 season is the last season of this generation of star players to contribute to the Mountain City team. This is not a story of any one person, with each person's thoughts and perceptions. Famous youth training centers such as Song Lam Nghe An, Dong Thap... have received countless useful lessons when players played their last season under contract. If the players were discussed and signed a new contract, it would be a different story. Unfortunately, the majority are still in a state of not knowing where they will stay or go next season? The story of love and gratitude is real and is still put first in the professional football environment. So the results of the match are not as expected, the players lack motivation on the field, keeping them... is not a strange or difficult thing to understand? It is difficult to understand that everything is obvious but people keep delaying and keeping quiet, everything is still at that level.
After all, the ambition of the owner and the team is only to stay in the league, so no matter how much they praise it, the final result will still lead to a worthy position at the end of the season as seen before. Of course, with ambitions like Topenland Binh Dinh, everything does not mean that buying good teachers and good students will "harvest" a high ranking right away, but must go through a long process, full of sweat and money. There is also the story of a "dark horse" team, but perseverance and standing firm is never easy, if not to say that next season is the address for other teams to exploit points, being "beaten up".
To see the long-term story of Hoang Anh Gia Lai in general is not strange. This team does not really have a good youth training foundation, does not create a worthy successor, serves a beautiful style of play but lacks practical efficiency, so it is difficult to be tough enough when facing any tough opponent. That is what they cannot do compared to opponents like Song Lam Nghe An when necessary, although in fact the Vinh home team also has countless unprofessional things yesterday and today./.
