V-League Trend: Domestic coaches and foreign players take the throne

Foreign soldiers are a must

The prerequisite is that the V-League champion must have good foreign players, not highly skilled foreign coaches. This year, Hanoi FC even has 2 top foreign players in the V-League, broadly speaking, in the top 10 strikers of the season, there are only 2 domestic strikers: Tien Linh and Cong Phuong.

The recent trend is that to have good results, you need a good foreign striker who can play aggressively and aggressively. Even HAGL, with a midfield consisting of national players but without good foreign players, still struggles in the bottom half of the rankings. V-League seems to be more suitable for foreign players with good physique and fitness than for players who play with more technical skills.

Coach Miura is the last remaining foreign coach of V-League 2018 and has now left Vietnam. Photo: Internet

Meanwhile, the ball-making stage is nailed down to the domestic players, the only top 5 assist of the season is Pape Omar. But the fact that the captain of FLC Thanh Hoa only has 7 assists that lead to goals is far behind the 17 assists of Nghiem Xuan Tu - the King of assists this season.

The ability to handle and pass the ball of Vietnamese players is better than foreign players. Except for Hung Dung (Hanoi) and Tan Tai (B.Binh Duong) who are central midfielders, the players at the top of the assist list all play as wingers.

This shows that the trend of playing from the wing has been increasingly implemented by Vietnamese clubs. Of Hung Dung's 8 assists and Tan Tai's 7, half came from crosses from the wing.

Internal teacher trend

Over the past 10 years, foreign coaches have never been successful in the V-League due to differences in professionalism in life and on the field, as well as behind-the-scenes intricacies.

Just recently, FLC Thanh Hoa spared no expense to bring the foreign coach Petrovic, who won the European Cup 1, to the field. But in the end, they still had to part ways in a situation of "losing money and suffering" because they could not help the team win the V-League championship.

When leaving, the Serbian coach said bitterly: "The organizing committee should award the championship team first, and let the clubs compete for other rankings, without wasting time and effort." With a professional eye, Mr. Petrovic could easily see the obstacles preventing and opposing not only Thanh Hoa when the manipulation of V-League in the hands of a boss is real.

Hanoi FC won the championship this season with a Vietnamese coaching staff that is knowledgeable about Vietnamese football. Photo: Internet

At the beginning of this season, Thanh Hoa continued to invite coach Marian Mihail, who used to be the technical director of the Romanian Football Federation, but quickly fired him after only four rounds when he heard rumors of "fighting between chickens". Young coach Nguyen Duc Thang took over after clearing up the "scandal" in the locker room and FLC Thanh Hoa returned to the race and eventually won the runner-up position.

Chung Hae-seong of HAGL team was once assistant coach Hiddink when Korea entered the world top 4 at the 2002 World Cup. Chung's coaching career in his home country was more glorious than his colleague Park, but when he returned to HAGL, he could not shine. HAGL played more blandly this season, without any unique features of the team that Mr. Duc had cared for for the past 4 years.

Ho Chi Minh City FC is one of the few Vietnamese teams that still "prefers foreign players". After parting ways with French coach Alain Fiard, they turned to coach Toshiya Miura, a Japanese coach.

In the list of HCMC Club's coaching staff, there are assistant Tran Hung Cuong, goalkeeper coach Vo Van Hanh, German fitness expert Martin Forkel. Mr. Vinh has promptly brought to Thong Nhat Stadium the stars: Tran Phi Son, Nguyen Thanh Diep (goalkeeper), Sam Ngoc Duc, Vu Ngoc Thinh, Nguyen Hai Anh, these are all players who played for the national team under coach Miura and at one point HCMC was considered a miniature national team.

This season, Ho Chi Minh City set a goal of entering the top 3, but Coach Toshiya Miura’s students have lost their image due to their violent playing style and have only managed to reach the “top 3 from the bottom” with some difficulty. The fact that Mr. Vinh and then Coach Miura “divorced” from the team is not surprising to anyone.

V-League now has no place for the model of coach Calisto with Long An national team in 2005-2006 or the Thai "teacher" coach Songamsak who won the championship with HAGL 2 years in a row 14 years ago. Only domestic coaches understand every corner of the V-League pitch, and are not "backstabbed" by their students and colleagues in a sophisticated way. Not to mention, they must know how to behave, be firm and gentle at the right time with referees, and please the media.