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 inexperience.
Shockingly, the Young Lions took the lead just before halftime. A hopeful ball from the back by Jared Gallagher caused Amirul Adli huge problems who played a (difficult to control) chipped pass back to Izwan Mahbud. Izwan completely misjudged the flight of the ball and it bounced all the way in to give the Young Lions a shock 1-0 lead, just before the break. Credit is also due to Amir Syafiz, who applied pressure all the way to force the two errors for the goal.
Second Half
Lalic recognized his mistake and brought off the ineffective Saifullah Akbar for Hariss Harun. This pushed Adam Swandi higher, which allowed him to operate where he is best at, higher up the pitch, in tighter spaces, linking the play from back to front.
Curiously, Shahdan Sulaiman was brought on for Gabriel who played a very high role. This is not Shahdan’s natural position for the last few years and it was curious to see him used so when previously he was a brilliant deep-lying playmaker. LCS were now quite clearly 4-2-3-1 with Shahdan as a #10. They dropped into more of a 4-4-1-1 shape when defending.
Still trailing, Lalic had to roll the dice again, sacrificing Adam Swandi for Diego Lopes. Shahdan was then pushed deeper into a pivot with Hariss (purple) while Diego Lopes (yellow) filled the #10 role behind Kim Shin Wook. The 3 attackers behind Kim Shin Wook were fluid and not fixed, able to drift wherever they pleased. That was how Lopes ended up on the right wing to assist Kim Shin Wook for a scrappy goal.
On the other hand, the Young Lions continued with their approach of sitting deep to frustrate the Sailors. While there were substitutions, their shape and approach remained largely the same throughout.
Nazri Nasir’s inaction led to LCS coming back
With such a patched-up side, it was definitely impressive in the way in which Nazri Nasir set his team up initially to frustrate an opponent that previously scored 10 goals (in 1 game) past them. However, he did not react to the Sailors’ changes readily to relieve the pressure on his youthful team. Here, for the Sailors’ goal, Diego Lopes (yellow) has time and space to take down the ball and control it, as the fatigued back 4 of the Young Lion backpedals (purple), before playing a masterful cutback for a scrappy Kim Shin Wook goal. Here the tired leftback of the Young Lions could not get out in time and stop the cross which led to the goal.
With the Sailors constantly using diagonals to switch the balls to the flanks to their wingers, the Young Lions were constantly exposed down the flanks time and time again. Since the plan was to sit deep anyway and with the Sailors barely going down the centre to break down the deep block of the Young Lions, it might have been better to sacrifice one of the central midfielders to play a defensive line of 5 (and sit in a 5-4-1 formation instead of their 4-5-1 shape) to better defend the diagonals.
They had the players to do it, Arshad Shamin (who has played at wingback for large parts this season) could have slotted in at Right Wingback, Syabil Hisham could have been brought on as a third centreback and moving the solid Daniel Crichton out to right Wingback from rightback. Nazri Nasir’s inaction may have very well cost the Young Lions all three points on the night.
Conclusion – Horrible from the Sailors
This was a horrible display for the Sailors, both by manager Lalic and the players on the pitch. Tougher tests will certainly lie ahead in the form of Albirex. That said, this was very much a valuable point for them to take home. With this point, Albirex was no longer a must-win game if Balestier-Young Lions ends in a draw. (A draw with Albirex would bring the Sailors onto 3 points over the 2 each of Balestier and Young Lions in that scenario.)
The Young Lions can certainly take heart for the spirit shown especially with so many players out. If the Sailors lose against Albirex (which already happened thrice this season), Balestier-Young Lions would be a winner-takes-all clash for progression to the next round.
Written by Zach Wu (Guest Writer)
