November 2022

Fun Day Out at LCS Training Centre + Dortmund Preview

It was a fun day out for the boys of SailorFanTalk today, as all three of us headed down bright and early to LCS Training Centre to play in the BVB Fan Club v The Crew friendly game. Fun fact, Ethan (one of SailorFanTalk’s own) is also a huge BVB supporter and so he played for BVB Fan Club. The Crew 2 – 1 BVB Fan Club Despite being outnumbered by the BVB fans, after some negotiation, it was agreed that 4 of the newer BVB fans would don Sailors shirts and play for us. This of course caused quite a bit of unfamiliarity for us and we started the match tentatively. However, we managed to slowly gain a foothold in the game, and went into half-time with a 2-1 lead. BVB fans clearly took the game very seriously, judging by the number of sliding tackles I saw from their players. It was a friendly, but it was clear that BVB were trying their best to win it. After half-time, BVB sent out their “death squad”, putting together their best team in a bid to come back into the game, but by then we had gelled with our new friends and gradually grew into the game. In the end, we managed to see the game out courtesy of some good defending and good goalkeeping, and there were handshakes and smiles all around. We made some new friends, and I made it a point to take a picture with 10 year old Thabo, who is definitely one to watch. He’s a young Ousmane Dembele, and I had to concentrate really hard to make sure he didn’t get the better of me. And he’s 10! Apparently he’s one of the top-scorers in the Puma Youth Champions League, so yeah Thabo if you ever become famous please remember that I played against you one rainy morning in 2022! It was all fun and games, but the morning ended on a sour note as our very own Joseph twisted his knee chasing an opponent, and had to receive treatment from the ambulance crew. We wish Joseph a speedy recovery! Meet-and-Greet with Sailors and Dortmund Players After the friendly game, we washed up and went on to the meet-and-greet. Sailors’ representatives were captain Hariss Harun, and Gabriel Quak. For BVB, they sent Julian Rijkhoff and Antonios Papadopoulos – I must be very honest and say I had never in my life heard of them. I have since done some checking and it seems Rijkhoff has not made a senior appearance yet, while Papadopoulos has had a few cameos. Through the interviews, they did seem like pretty approachable and humble people – people committed to making it in the Bundesliga. I wish them the best in their careers. However, the highlight of the meet-and-greet for me at least was the chance to see Hariss and Gab, especially Hariss before he flies off soon to national team training ahead of the AFF ME Cup. When asked about the team’s chances, he let on that the team was looking to at least repeat what was achieved last edition – a semi-final position, or even better. He also agreed with the comment made by the moderator that Jalan Besar Stadium is a unique venue because of how intimate it is with the supporters being so close to the action, especially when both sides are sold out. After a few more questions that were unremarkable, it was time for photo-taking and autograph-signing. Once again, smiles all around. Preview to Dortmund game Obviously, given that this is a friendly game, the result isn’t really gonna matter. However, I feel that with the gloomy end to the season and all the uncertainty surrounding whether our players will be extended, I really hope that we put up a respectable showing. I am confident we will get this. I think it’s also good that our Sailors get to say a proper goodbye to us. So far, we know that Faris Ramli is gone, because of his Instastory that announced it was his last day at the LCS Training Centre a few days back. The official website has also confirmed that Shahdan Sulaiman is gone (https://www.lioncitysailorsfc.sg/friendly-only-in-name-sailors-vow-to-be-competitive-against-bvb/), and he isn’t the only one. Here’s the relevant quote – With this being the final match for some in the Sailors class of 2022, Hafiz expressed a tinge of sadness. “We know that there will be departures within the ranks, including experienced players like Shahdan (Sulaiman) whom I’ve played with since I was 12,” he said. “We have many memories together and unfortunately, some of them won’t be with us for the new season. It’s going to be emotional for sure, but it is a day that we will remember and hopefully we can end it off with a bang.”  Rumours have been floating around of us losing players like Gabriel Quak, Hassan Sunny, Izwan Mahbud, Amirul Adli, etc, and I guess my hope is that it’s not a complete clear-out because it will certainly take a while before we can get used to supporting new players, chanting new names etc. We will also miss the memories we shared with these players, many of whom were part of the title-winning squad last season. It will perhaps be interesting to see which players say prolonged goodbyes to the fans, which are usually indicative of them having played their last game for the club. I’ll try to enjoy the game tomorrow, and then deal with the sadness later. For those of you heading down tomorrow, see you for the final Post-Match Interview of the season! Come up and say hi please, don’t be a stranger!

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Happy for the Hools – What lessons the Crew can learn from them

These are just my opinions – if you feel offended reading any of the below paragraphs, just reach out to me and I’ll see if I can clear some stuff up. – Eddy What a great Cup final it was yesterday. Great game of football, with two great sets of supporters in the stands (plus many neutrals), and a trophy at the end of it. This was cup football at its finest. Why a Sailors fan was slightly leaning towards Hougang for the win I won’t lie – even as a Sailors fan, I was supporting Hougang this final. Lesser of the two evils, I guess. And also, I think my long friendship with the Hools made me happy for them to see them finally get rewarded for their years and years of supporting the club. And who doesn’t love an underdog story! Everyone and their mother (and Singapore Pools) was predicting a Tampines win. I also don’t really like Tampines Rovers, but my reasons for that shall stay private. I will share with you in person if you’re really curious. Before this turns into a whole post discussing why I do not like Tampines Rovers, I must turn the focus of this post back to the Hools. Perseverance and Passion When it comes to local football supporter groups, I don’t think there is any debate. The Hools and the Ultras Eagles (fans of Geylang International) are the two loudest and most organised fan groups currently. They are very passionate, and they’ve been around for a long time. I have nothing but respect for their dedication and I hope that one day, the Crew will be able to come close to the Hools in terms of their organised support. One Hool I am particularly close to is Merv. He may be a controversial figure (lots of people like to talk shit about him) but I will forever defend him because I know his passion for the club and for Singapore football is real. He also composed one (or maybe more) of the songs that the Hools use, “Satu Hati Satu Hougang”. It’s a song that’s so catchy I hate Merv for composing it because I sometimes find myself humming along to it and I hate myself for it haha. In my many conversations with him over the years, he’s been nothing but welcoming, and I appreciate that we can have this friendly rivalry in the stands, and come together to cheer whenever our national team plays. I think the take-aways from my conversations with him are that it takes time and patience to build such a strong supporter culture, and that the spirit is all-important. Once the spirit is right (the “semangat” that Merv always lovingly refers to), and there is a connection between the club, the players, and the fans, then good things can be achieved. The co-ordination of the Hools’ chants, and their togetherness is not by accident. It’s hard work and painstaking growth that has taken place since 2010/2011. It’s more than a decade in the making. But of course, followers of local football will know that week in week out, the Hools chant and chant but the club has not achieved anything of note in their history. Until last night, that is. I texted Merv to congratulate him first, and then the other Hools I knew as well. Shoutout to Alvin, Michael, Amsyar and many many others. Gutted that Sailors are not in the final, but so happy that these long-suffering fans have some reward at the end of a long period of pain. “Plastics” The Crew is often referred to as being plastic fans, or glory-hunters. This is of course, an unfair tag, given that a large number of the Crew have actually started off as Home United fans who stuck with the club despite the rebranding and privatisation. Even if they are new fans, I am not sure that we really need to attach such negative labels to Singaporeans who bother coming to a game. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, I feel. People laud LCS for their marketing efforts – the pyrotechnics, the increased social media presence, the merchandising, and all that, but surely the point of all this is to attract new fans. But when the new fans turn up, they are labelled as “plastics” – what gives? Must we shame our fellow Singaporeans who decide to attend our games because there is now a much better matchday experience? (erhem, aside to certain club’s Chairman who calls us plastic at every opportunity and somehow found it appropriate to sneak this same reference in into his obituary to the late FAS President Lim Kia Tong) No. Let’s welcome these new fans, to whatever club they want to support. Be it Geylang or Hougang or Albirex or Tampines, why are we giving labels to people? Surely whether or not they are plastic depends on whether they will stick with their club through thick and thin. LCS imploded spectacularly this year, so let’s see whether the Crew sticks around next year, or if everyone just gives up. I know where I’ll still be next year, and the years after that. Let’s support each other There’s a reason I am bringing this up now. I was so encouraged that the brilliant cup final last night sparked so much interest. Tampines and Hougang both played a part in ensuring that at the end of the night, local football was the winner. The goals were of a very good quality, and both teams played positive, flowing football. The action even sparked a Reddit thread in r/Singapore that is doing quite well. Do check it out here (https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/yzz59p/why_you_should_watch_local_football_its_actually/). Clearly the writer of that post is super passionate about local football, so much so that he’s decided to write a whole post about it to encourage his fellow Singaporeans to come down to a game. Now, I call upon all of us, Sailors fans included, let’s welcome

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Should Fans be Worried about Forrest Li / SEA Losing Money?

You’ve seen the news. Sensational headlines about how Forrest Li’s wealth has crashed, and how he’s only worth US$4.7 billion now, as opposed to US$22 billion sometime back when SEA shares were worth a ton. (Only US$4.7 billion huh! How I wish I was worth even US$4.7 million haha) For the longest time, these news, plus rumours and confirmed statements of SEA/Shopee employees being let go made me wonder – should we as LCS fans be worried? Will there be cost-cutting measures that will result in our players and non-playing staff leaving? I tried to do some research myself. I downloaded the Corporate Compliance and Financial Profile of Lion City Sailors Private Limited off ACRA, and tried to take a look at the financials to see what they could tell me. Well, ok that didn’t tell me anything much. First thing I noticed is this profile was perhaps purchased too early – 2022 hasn’t ended, so I cannot see the financial data for this year, which is when most of the drama happened at SEA. But what could I make of the rest of the stats? Some initial thoughts – if you zoom in on revenue, you will see that for 2020, we had S$3 million revenue, and the next year, we had S$13.6 million revenue. LCS is a private limited company so they do not need to disclose exactly to the public where they get their revenue from. But even from a rough estimate, you sense that academy fees, merchandise sales and ticket sales are not gonna give us S$13.6 million. You can do some quick math if you’d like – but let’s take ticket sales. If you take an optimistic figure of 4000 tickets sold every game (the truth is far from this), then you’re still not cracking a million dollars if you take the figure and multiply it over 14 home games last season. And how did our revenue increase from 3 million to 13.6 million over one year? Surely the re-opening of stadiums after COVID had some impact, but this was way too much. It is more likely than not that this is an injection from Garena Ventures Private Limited, which is the sole shareholder of LCS. Note also that Garena Ventures is a subsidiary of SEA Limited. This part may get confusing – I’ll address this later. Anyway, the point is – there is nothing much conclusive I could see from the financial reports. So I knew I had to call in someone who knew way more about this than myself. Enter Anthony, childhood friend of mine I’ve known since I was 7. Nowadays he is one of the hosts on a local financial podcast called The Financial Coconut, and I thought, hey, let’s get him to talk about the financial situation at SEA/Shopee/LCS and whether or not I should be worried. Conclusion Long story short – we shouldn’t be worried because from LCS’s statements, it looks like we’re spending 8 figure-sums max, tens of millions. That’s a fraction of Forrest Li’s net worth – that is also a fraction of the figures we’re talking about when it comes to SEA. Anthony and I go into a deep dive in our podcast episode, and we even talk about how LCS could go about signing Cristiano Ronaldo if we needed to (haha). Do check it out! Click here – https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Tx8WeEOeVgvfdGVV28Gf3?si=6d8b3ed9491c4955 Oh, and may the best team win in the Singapore Cup final later!

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[Tactical Analysis] Hafiz Nor on the Wrong Flank (LCS 1 Albirex 2)

The following tactical analysis is from Zach Wu, who’s not a Sailors fan, but we just thought it would be good for someone without rose-tinted glasses to analyse the tactics of our games. We hope to make this a regular column so that we can better appreciate what is going on in our games from a tactical perspective. This was the big one. With a point salvaged from the Young Lions game, the Sailors’ fate was still in their hands. It was do or die for the Sailors. A win would guarantee qualification while anything less would need results from the Balestier-Young Lions game to go their way. Lalic’s curious tactical choices Lalic made very interesting choices, especially in the absence of a proper leftback. Bill came in at right back while Hafiz Nor and Anu stayed in the same positions from the previous game. Curiously, Hariss was used in midfield (who was mostly deployed as a centreback in season) and Anu in defence as compared to the other way round. From the above screenshot, look at Hafiz Nor’s body positioning just as he is about to receive the ball. He is facing his own goal and the only real option (within his eyeline) he has is to play the ball back to Amirul Adli who then has to launch the ball long afterwards. Hafiz Nor really struggled in an unfamiliar role. While understandable to keep Bill at rightback given his right footedness and inexperience, it was really a handicap to the team especially with Hafiz Nor being very uncomfortable at leftback and unable to make his trademark overlapping runs we have seen this season. Instead, it might have been better to swap the fullbacks. This would also have helped Gabriel who is a left footer on the right and hence would have a tendency to cut in anyways, allowing Hafiz Nor to overlap and cross on his strong right foot. I will elaborate on this point later in the article. Also, this would have placed Bill away from the tricky Sugita who has been one of the best wingers in the past season and up against Sambongi, a natural fullback. Bill was anyways not overlapping much on the right and staying back, hence keeping him on the right or left would not have made a big difference while there was big upside if LCS would get Hafiz Nor at right back overlapping and swinging crosses into the box. The other curious decision was Anu and Hariss switching positions (from what they were usually used in this season). I can partly understand why Lalic chose to play them in those positions. Lalic must have seen Anu’s lack of technical security on the ball and hence moved him to a position that required less technical security, especially against an Albirex side that was going to sit deep anyways and not pressure the centrebacks. Anu being primarily a destroyer may not have been in Lalic’s vision to play football, unable to switch balls to the flanks as consistently as Hariss or Shahdan could. However with Anu’s struggles in defense earlier in the regular season as compared to Hariss’s calm and composed demeanour, it was still a curious choice. Instead, LCS could have chosen to line up like this. Hariss would bring much more familiarity and security at the back, Hafiz Nor could overlap comfortably on the right while Shahdan could play this familiar deep lying playmaker position. Anu in midfield could also use his athleticism to cover for Shadan’s ageing legs. By allowing Shahdan to get onto the ball more, his technical abilities would solve LCS’s distribution issues and allow them to connect the back 6 (in picture) to the front 4 (of the LCS attackers) far easier. Overlaps the key Despite all the tactical issues, LCS were able to create good quality chances through simple overlaps. Even without fullback support, LCS could still use simple overlaps (with their superior player quality) to fashion chances. Here, Diego (red) is engaging the player while Lestienne (purple) runs on the outside to overlap him before sending a cross/cutback that falls to Gabriel whose shot is then blocked for a corner. Likewise here, there is a player holding the ball up(red) and an overlapping runner (purple) to cut the ball back into the box. Unfortunately, Faris misses here when it falls to him. While it is easy to blame the players who have missed those chances, Lalic should have set up LCS so as to increase the potency of such dangerous cutbacks especially considering LCS were starting without a natural striker who could finish such chances. How should he have done that? In both aforementioned cases, there were only 2 players attacking the cutback, the 2 players in the box. LCS could have increased this potency by increasing the number of players attacking the box. This hypothetical situation could be created if Hafiz Nor was played at right back and overlapping Gabriel instead. Here, Gabriel is on the ball (yellow star) and being left-footed would naturally come inside from the right. This would lure his direct opponent, the opposition leftback Toyomura inside. With the space now created, Hafiz Nor can now run onto the ball and potentially send a dangerous cross or cutback (purple). Being a winger played at fullback, the delivery would definitely be potent. This would add an extra LCS body into the box, with 3 instead of 2 too, making this simple overlapping move far more potent. Even by committing that extra body (Hafiz Nor in the previous case) into attack, LCS would still have a 5 vs 4 scenario to guard against any Albirex counter attacks, making LCS secure against any transitions that Albirex might spring. LCS were not brave enough to commit enough bodies into the attack and that blunted their attack. Controlling transitions Another big issue for LCS was the poor control of space on attack-to-defense transitions. Transitions are the moments when the ball is lost or gained

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Post-Match Thoughts – Too Little Too Late (LCS 1 Albirex 2)

Much, much improved from our previous games. In yesterday’s post (https://sailorfantalk.com/2022/11/04/albirex-match-preview-play-for-the-badge/), I asked for the players to show fight – “That’s all we ask for – give us a performance that we can be proud of, so that whatever the result, we can feel that they’ve done their best.” They certainly delivered. It was a much more gutsy performance, and right from the first whistle, it looked like it was only going to be a matter of time before the Sailors would open the scoring. Faris was leading the press up top with vigour, Anu was snapping into challenges even after receiving a harsh yellow. Hariss rolled back the years with a combative display in midfield. Bill Mahmadou was also switched on right from the start. Everyone put in the hard yards, and was not shy of making challenges to try to get the ball back for us. And so it was pretty sad that the first goal went to Albirex. They had struggled in the first half to mount any meaningful attack, and then the ref gave them a soft freekick at the edge of our area. This was to be a theme all night as the inept referee repeatedly turned a blind eye to fouls by the Albirex players. Up stepped set-piece expert Idetsu, and he curled it into the near post, past Izwan. An undeserved lead, and it left us with a mountain to climb. However, we didn’t seem that affected. The players still played the better football, but crucially couldn’t finish. Gabriel, Diego Lopes, Faris Ramli, all had great opportunities to get a goal but it didn’t happen until Hami Syahin’s switched pass was brought down by Maxime Lestienne, who then faked out the Albirex defence before passing it coolly into the bottom corner. 1-1, game on. Except it wasn’t to be. As the Sailors pushed forward, gaps were left at the back, and Kodai Tanaka stepped up to kill the hopes off. The Young Lions game was the problem As stated above, I think the players were blameless this game. They gave it all they got. Where I think we lost it, was against Balestier Khalsa and the Young Lions, but especially the Young Lions game. No attacking urgency, sloppy in midfield and defence, we deserved nothing from that game. Unfortunately, those 2 games not being capitalised on have come back to bite us on our ass hard. And sadly, across the 3 games, we deserve to go out. It was thus our last game of the season. We will have tons of time to look into why the season finished the way it did, and what the Sailors should do for next season. For now, I think it’s fair to say that these standards fall way short of the standards needed to play for the Lion City Sailors. Good in the last game, but abysmal the two games before. Till next time.

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Albirex Match Preview – Play for the Badge

Let’s face it, our Sailors have not played well in the last 2 months. Whatever the reason for that downfall is, we now find ourselves in a position where we only have 2 points from our opening games in the Singapore Cup, when they were games against the bottom 2 in the league. The one that hurt most will be the game against Young Lions – we play in the Mitsubishi Electric AFF Cup in December, and a team boasting so many Singapore internationals cannot beat a team with one Singapore international, and no foreigners. It was dreadful. Pre-match comments from the players (see A fight for the badge, our fans – and pride – Lion City Sailors FC) indicate that they are eager to make amends, with Hariss Harun saying this – “We have to do it for them, for ourselves, and for the club. When we step onto the pitch, we represent the club and we have to play for the badge on our chest with pride and fire.    “Play for the badge” is an oft-quoted phrase. It usually means to push yourself to your limit and to do your absolute best, to live up to the history of the badge, the club, and everything it represents. However, of course, the Lion City Sailors are a very new club. I am not so sure the history of the club is foremost on the players’ minds when they step out onto the pitch. And so perhaps a little bit of reframing would be good. Our players should think of these games as a tune-up for the AFF Cup. How’s their confidence gonna be if they’re struggling to win games against the likes of Balestier Khalsa and Young Lions? I don’t think football form is just a switch that they can turn on or off – play like crap when donning the Sailors uniform, and then come 24 December, just shake it off and do well in a Lions shirt. But if they are to play themselves into form, they are running out of opportunities to do so. This could very well be their last match tomorrow. If we fail to win, we are then left at the mercy of Young Lions and Balestier Khalsa. Any of those 2 teams win, and it’s curtains for us. Even as an ardent fan of the Sailors, I am not so sure I can say I feel confident heading into tomorrow’s game. We have failed to beat them in a league match since we rebranded as LCS, and our recent form has been very poor. I picked the Braveheart image because it’s blue and white, and also because I really hope our boys show some fight tomorrow. That’s all we ask for – give us a performance that we can be proud of, so that whatever the result, we can feel that they’ve done their best. Come on you Sailors.

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Meetup with FAS + Unexpected Appearance of a Lions Legend

Yesterday was an interesting day. I went to Jalan Besar Stadium for a meeting with FAS, along with representatives of other SPL clubs. We were supposed to meet with one of the administrators, a friendly chap named Aloysius, who is in charge of Competitions department in FAS, and has always been part of efforts to reach out to local football fans. What a surprise then to be greeted by Baihakki Khaizan, Lions centurion and legend. He introduced himself with a firm handshake, and beckoned us to follow him into the seminar room for our discussion. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss a fan club tournament to kick off the SPL next season. The rough idea is to do a 5v5 or 7v7 one-day tournament involving all the fan clubs, and do a mini-carnival where all the clubs can put up a booth to showcase themselves. The purpose of this would be to generate a bit of hype before the start of the season, and also to create more awareness about the fan clubs, and hopefully get more people to join and be passionate supporters of the local game through the respective clubs. Of course, there was also lots of chat about the upcoming AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup, and what improvements can be made to the SPL. Some key points of discussion. Jay Chou concert meant that we could not play our games in the Sportshub There was lots of chatter online about how it is a joke that we have a multi-million dollar stadium but we are unable to play our AFF Cup home games there. Instead, we are consigned to the much-smaller Jalan Besar Stadium. FAS Secretary-General Yazeen Buhari popped by during our meeting and explained how this happened. When AFF first gave dates for the AFF Cup to take place, they said it would be sometime in January 2023. As such, FAS worked with Sportshub to reserve the month of January for Lions games. Jay Chou’s concerts take place on 17 and 18 December 2022. Yazeen said that to Sportshub’s credit, they did not resist much when the request to book the month of January was made, given the importance of hosting national team games there, and they made sure no commercial bookings were made for that month. However, by the time AFF confirmed the dates, it then came to be that our first home game would be on 24 December against Myanmar, a mere 6 days after the Jay Chou concert. Some of us were curious – was it truly impossible to prepare the venue for the game if there’s a 6-day gap between the concert and our first game? Yazeen told us it was impossible – the Sportshub crew would have to wheel out the concrete surface used for Jay Chou’s concert, wheel in the grass surface used for the football games, and then it would need a further period of time for the soil and grass to truly settle in and be a stable playing surface. This will take at least 2 – 3 weeks. We know of the Sportshub’s previous struggles with grass surfaces even when we hosted huge international teams like Brazil and Japan, so I think it’s understandable that such protocols are in place to ensure the integrity of the playing surface. Playing at a smaller stadium – is it a bad thing? In my opinion, it’s not a bad thing. Jalan Besar Stadium is a unique ground in Singapore because it’s one of the few purpose-built football stadiums. The fans are so close to the pitch because there is no running track. This really allows the fans to chant and sing for 90min, and transmit that energy to the players. It was interesting that this view was backed up by Baihakki. He said a combination of factors, such as the artificial turf, the closeness to the fans, the size of the pitch, and of course, the excellent results achieved there over the years make Jalan Besar Stadium a very conducive place for our Lions to get the results we need to qualify for the knockout stages. While he understands that more fans get to go in and watch the Lions if the match was held at Sportshub, he feels that this enforced change is in no way a bad thing. VAR in the SPL Some fans expressed their concern at the refereeing standards in the SPL, and were not confident that VAR would be of much help. My opinion is that it should help, given that referees have a very difficult task of watching multiple things going on at the same time, plus they are also called upon to make snap decisions that can greatly influence the outcomes of games. As Sailors fans, we have both benefitted and been screwed by such decisions this season – but I feel like we should take a step back and realise that this happens everywhere in the world. VAR should help because it buys time for the referee to look at the incident with various angles, and be in discussion with the rest of his team to arrive at the best decision. It may cause delays, but at least in my opinion it will lead to the correct decision more often. Baihakki told us that he knows what we go through as fans, and he does feel that perhaps modern referees lack the human touch of the great refs of the previous era, such as Shamsul Maidin, and Abdul Malik. Aloysius then explained further that VAR needs to be implemented sooner or later, or we will not be able to host AFC tournaments, and also our referees would become obsolete – who wants a referee at big tournaments who has zero experience dealing with VAR? Basically, we’re just keeping up with the times. Other stuff Talked about a lot of other stuff as well, but I guess the main snippet I want to remember is this – Yazeen looked at me

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[Tactical Analysis] Lalic’s Curious Lineup Choices (Young Lions 1 LCS 1)

The following tactical analysis is from Zach Wu, who’s not a Sailors fan, but we just thought it would be good for someone without rose-tinted glasses to analyse the tactics of our games. We hope to make this a regular column so that we can better appreciate what is going on in our games from a tactical perspective. It may have seemed like a foregone conclusion. But no, the Young Lions ran their hearts out against the recently-deposed champions to hold them to an impressive score-draw. The Sailors put out a very attacking lineup – seemingly because of their need for goals. Having drawn against Balestier Khalsa, if both LCS and Balestier were to have identical results against Albirex, qualification out of the group would then be down to goal difference. Young Lions Setup The Young Lions fielded a patched-up side, with understandable absentees (as it was a Monday night) due to national service or schooling commitments. Nazri Nasir set the Young Lions up in a deep 4-1-4-1 block, but played Amir Syafiz (a usual centre midfielder) upfront for his workrate and to shut down balls being played into the centre to force the Sailors out wide. The approach was clear – sit deep to frustrate the Sailors and to possibly nick a goal on a counter or a set piece. Lion City Sailors Setup For the Sailors, they welcomed back Diego Lopes to the bench while captain Hariss and Shahdan were dropped to the bench.  This lineup was a curious one – with Hafiz Nor at leftback, Anu at centreback and Haiqal Pashia at rightback. It was a very inexperienced back 4. Saifullah had a lot of licence to go forward, with Adam Swandi sitting in front of the defense. The Sailors’ on the ball shape often looked more like a 4-1-4-1, with Saifullah and Gabriel the 2 #8s ahead of Adam Swandi. The approach of the Sailors was clear. They deployed two wide players with their natural foot on each flank. This was a slightly different approach compared to under their previous coach Kim, who would have used Faris as a #10 while Lestienne and Gabriel roamed the flanks. Here, Lestienne was played on the left and Faris on the right, intending to stretch play on the wings on their natural foot and use their individual ability to beat their man and send crosses in. Hafiz Nor used on the left was also instructed to underlap Lestienne when possible. LCS’s lack of compactness Personally, I felt the lack of compactness was LCS’s biggest issue. The team felt very disjointed, with the front 5 being very disconnected from the back 5 (we will refer Adam Swandi and the back 4 as the “back 5”). In the picture above, you’ll see that the Young Lions are on the break. However, look at LCS’s defensive shape. There is only Adam Swandi in midfield to plug the gigantic hole in midfield while the defensive line is so deep that it is entirely out of the picture. That is poor compactness. Even if LCS were to win the ball back here, it would be difficult to find the attackers too, given the large distances needed to get the ball into the final third. Instead, the attackers need to be more well positioned to counter-press and the defensive line needs to be way higher up the pitch, to better stop counters. Playing an inexperienced backline that has never played together, Lalic has to be at fault here. The defensive line must have felt unsure in stepping up and decided to play it safe instead and dropped deep. The lack of compactness really killed LCS on transitions. LCS missing a link player It was apparent that the Sailors were missing a link player too. Their best link player was used as a deep lying playmaker sitting in front of defense. With Adam Swandi the deepest of all the midfielders, it was apparent that the back 5 were very disconnected with the front 5 (rest of the outfielders). Saifullah and Gabriel took turns to drop deep but their movements were inconsistent and ineffective. As a result, the Sailors’ play lacked a central presence and all the play went down the flanks. Here, there is only 1 player (yellow) within the Young Lions defensive block, making it hard to progress play through the centre. In addition, Adam Swandi (purple) is closely marked by the Young Lions makeshift striker making it extremely difficult to switch play to the far side. The play then has to go down the flanks or back to the centrebacks. Instead, the Sailors should be exploiting the space (orange) here. A Sailors player, be it Kim Shin Wook or Gabriel should be in this zone, forcing the Young Lions to cover this zone and also allowing them numerical superiority in a wide area to render their flank play more effective. The Sailors should also have looked for opportunities like this to penetrate the Young Lions centrally. Instead of a diagonal ball out to the flanks (which Adam Swandi did eventually play), Adam Swandi (orange) should try to find Saifullah (yellow) centrally. Shah Shahiran has turned his body infield and Saifullah is on his blind side, making the pass possible. Once played to Saifullah, he can turn and drive with the ball or possibly play it to Faris (purple). This would allow the Sailors to attack the Young Lions’ backline directly and bypass the midfield. First Half Even with their possession issues, LCS still managed to create a handful of good chances with their superior player quality that could have gone in with better finishing. Maxime was bogged down by Danial Crichton, unable to beat his man consistently. It was even such an issue that after the first water break midway, Lalic instructed Faris and Maxime to swap flanks. The Young Lions were generally quite solid but they offered very little offensively and even switched off for a quick free kick, which showed their

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POST-MATCH THOUGHTS – BLUE (YOUNG LIONS 1 LCS 1)

Well, that was bleak. In my post previewing the Young Lions game, I talked about how it was a must-win game. I also spoke about how Young Lions were missing Raoul Suhaimi, one of their most promising players. Yesterday, when the line-ups came out, two things stood out to me. 1) Jordan Emaviwe wasn’t playing. He’s been their key attacking outlet, so this was definitely good for us. Their “striker” was a central midfielder. 2) Bizarrely, we chose to line up with only 1 recognised defender. I was hoping to see lots of goals in the first half, because I had to leave at half-time to go play in the Fan Club Futsal League. The Crew had a match against Olympique Marseille Fan Club (we got smacked 11-0 haha), and I had high hopes of seeing the Sailors kill off the game in the first half. Instead, I was treated to a lacklustre display where players seemed to not want to take any risks when they circulated the ball, passing it about in a U shape. Try to visualise it – but basically the passes would go from left wing back to central midfield, back to Anu, Anu passes it to Amirul Adli, who then passes it to his right, and then it ends up at the wing again, and they do the same thing the other way round this time. It was painful to watch. There were also moments when the Young Lions started playing tiki-taka football. It is not often you get to associate the Young Lions with dynamic one-touch passing moves, but it happened, and it unfolded right before my eyes. I guess if I wanna be truly optimistic I can be happy that Singapore has some young players who are able to play good football. But as a Sailors fan, it was horrifying to watch. This is real football, not FIFA Also, is it just me, or does anyone else think it was absolutely crazy to play so many non-defenders in a back 4? Anu has deputised there this season on a number of occasions but I think even he himself would not say he excelled in his stints there. Then on the fullback positions it gets more bizarre. Hafiz Nor at rightback we’ve gotten accustomed to seeing due to long-term injury to Mamat, and the expulsion of Tajeli – but this time he was shifted to leftback. Rightback Haiqal Pashia? He’s never played there before in his life I think – please correct me if I am wrong. Was this arrogance? Tactically naive? I don’t know what it was, but what I do know is that when you’re trying to score a lot of goals to rack up goal difference, it’s not as simple as sticking on as many attackers as possible. I can only assume that this was Lalic’s idea of squeezing in as many goal threats as possible. However, how can people attack with conviction, if they know that behind them, their teammates might not be equipped to deal with a counter-attack? This isn’t FIFA, where defending is easy as long as your players are fast. Defence is an art, managing the gaps, dictating the height of the line, knowing when to push up, and when to drop back, etc etc etc. I felt that the defenders seemed not to know when they should press higher, and when they should drop off. When things got tougher and they came under pressure, I felt they dropped too deep. But can I blame them? No I don’t think so. When you have Iqram Rifqi on your bench, and you decide to play Hafiz Nor as your leftback, I have to ask “Bro, what?” The shocking own goal And then we come to the incident just before half-time. Was it Amirul Adli’s fault? Izwan? Both? I would say both, but I lean towards Amirul Adli more I think. It’s almost half-time, the stadium announcer had already loudly announced that there was only gonna be 1 minute of injury time. A hopeful long punt forward saw Amirul Adli do well to get in front of his opponent – and he would have seen that he was being chased down. The whistle was gonna blow very soon – why not just clear it to the sides? For Izwan, goalkeepers are sometimes told to stand to the side as well, so that even if they fail to trap any backpass, the ball will go out for a corner. Well, no need for me to relive the goal for you. If you haven’t watched it yet, do go and see it. It has to be seen to be believed. These are our national team players. Kim Shin Wook – should he have been sent off? Yes. Not much debate here. The answer is Yes. We got away with it. That he managed to score after that will make Young Lions feel even more shit. Conclusion We now need to beat Albirex – something we have only done once in our history. I have to say I am not confident, but with Maxime and Diego, you never quite know. Stay tuned for Zach’s in-depth tactical analysis. That should be out tonight.

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