November 1, 2022

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