Why is Song Lam Nghe An increasingly 'dry' in scoring goals?

In the past 10 years, SLNA has had continuous changes and their achievements have also fluctuated accordingly. The number of goals scored by the Nghe An team in each season has accurately reflected their strength and ranking at the end of the season.

Specifically, in V.League 2009 when SLNA was led by coach Nguyen Van Thinh, although they did not have quality foreign players, thanks to their effective counter-attacking style of play, the Vinh team still finished in a spectacular 3rd place with 39 goals scored/29 goals conceded.

This is the time when SLNA welcomes a generation of quality domestic players, reaching maturity such as Huy Hoang, Dinh Dong, Au Hoan, Trong Hoang, Van Binh, Dac Khanh. It is worth mentioning that this is the season in which SHB Da Nang won the championship, B. Binh Duong won the runner-up position but SLNA lost the least (5 matches).

By V.League 2010, SLNA had not yet invested heavily in terms of personnel when coach Huu Thang had just returned. SLNA's foreign players included striker Vidovic, midfielder Zakovic, striker Miterovic and striker Mauro, but only Vidovic was of quality. In the end, SLNA only scored 36 goals, conceded 26 goals and became the team with the most draws in the tournament (10 matches).

Kavin Bryan - Diego Fagan is a quality striker pair of SLNA in the 2011 season. Photo: VPF

Everything changed when the Nghe An team received heavy investment in V.League 2011. Coach Huu Thang brought in 3 extremely high-quality foreign players: midfielder Edmund Ahsah - Ghana national team player, Kavin Bryan - Jamaica national team player, Diego Fagan, Devons. With the available domestic players, Coach Huu Thang and his team became champions with 48 goals scored/29 goals conceded, an average of 1.8 goals/match.

Entering V.League 2012, SLNA said goodbye to all 3 foreign players who won the championship with them last season and brought in other players such as Abass, Dickson, Bebe, Hector Kerin. These are quite quality strikers and helped coach Huu Thang and his team score 45 goals (1.7 goals/match).

In the 2013 season, SLNA welcomed the return of Le Cong Vinh, the domestic players remained the same, even adding promising young players such as Phi Son, Ngoc Hai, Khac Ngoc, Manh Hung. SLNA's foreign players at that time were Hector Kerin, Kavin Bryan, Willis Plaza, making coach Huu Thang and his team a championship candidate.

At the end of that season, the Nghe An team lost the chance to win the championship because Saigon XT Club withdrew from the tournament and had all 2 wins canceled, 6 points deducted and dropped to 4th place overall. If not for that incident, the number of goals of SLNA would have been 44 (an average of 1.7 goals/match) instead of 40 when the rankings had changed.

Statistics of SLNA's goals from V.League 2009 to present. Graphics: TK

In V.League 2014, SLNA encountered some difficulties when the team started to say goodbye to a series of key players and could not keep their best foreign players. However, coach Huu Thang and his team still scored 38 goals, an average of 1.5 goals/match and ranked 5th overall.

After coach Huu Thang left, SLNA could no longer maintain its previous position because it did not invest heavily in recruiting foreign players, and domestic players also left one after another. The results showed that in V.League 2015, the number of goals was only 36, and in V.League 2016, it was 34 (an average of 1.3 goals/match) under coach Ngo Quang Truong.

In V.League 2017, coach Duc Thang took charge and Michael Olaha at the age of 20 was the most typical foreign player. However, "small swallows do not make a spring", the number of goals scored by the Nghe An team did not reach the level of over 40 goals as before. SLNA's attack scored 36 goals, equal to the achievement of 2 years ago.

The 2018 season was a time when SLNA's attack played quite effectively with the appearance of Olaha and Jeremie Lynch. Photo: Xuan Thuy

It was not until the 2018 season that the pair Michael Olaha - Jeremie Lynch brought home 12 goals, helping SLNA score a total of 38 goals, and ranked 4th overall. This is considered a great success for coach Duc Thang and his team. However, compared to the period 2011 - 2013, this is still a modest number.

Things became even more difficult for SLNA in V.League 2019 when foreign strikers such as Alves Santos (0 goals), Vinicius (4 goals) played ineffectively. Striker Michael Olaha still played aggressively but only scored 5 goals. In total, SLNA's attack only scored 32 goals (average 1.2 goals/match), drawing 11 matches. This achievement is a sad record for SLNA over the past 10 years.

It is easy to see that the uniformity in the quality of foreign players has largely determined the number of goals and the final ranking of the Nghe An team. In V.League 2020 after 2 matches, SLNA has only scored 1 goal. Keeping a clean sheet is very important, but if the scoring efficiency is not improved, poor results at the end of the season are inevitable.

Song Lam Nghe An: Missing the 'old man' Michael Olaha and the question of foreign players

(Baonghean.vn) - Saying goodbye to all 3 foreign players when V.League 2019 ended and bringing in 3 new faces, but SLNA's current foreign players have not shown much. The statistics of the most recent matches have shown that.