What has been rumoured for a month or so now has finally been confirmed by Albirex Niigata (S) – Hassan Sunny has joined the reigning champions. We had confirmation a few weeks back that he would not be retained, along with Shahdan, Gabriel, Naqi, Iqram, and Faris.
Then the rumour mill started churning and there was news that he would be joining Albirex. You could tell there was probably some bad blood, as not only did Hassan not show up at all for the Dortmund game, which would have allowed us a chance to say our final goodbye to him, he tweeted this on 25 Nov 2022. It is not the most subtle, but in case you’ve not had your morning coffee yet, it says “The ship has sunk”.
We now know of course, that he was perhaps referring to the wide-ranging cuts that were about to happen across all levels in the club, both in the playing and non-playing staff. I wrote about it sometime back too, and expressed my opinion that far from it being a “strategic reset”, it was probably just cost-cutting measures. You can check it out here.
But let’s stick to the football chat and take a conscious step away from our off-the-field troubles. What does this transfer bring to Albirex, our closest rivals from last year? And does it weaken us alot?
Takahiro Koga v Hassan Sunny
Age – Koga is 24 next year while Hassan will be 39. For an outfield player, 39 might be a problem, but as we’ve seen with Hassan over the years, he just seems to get better with age.
I remember during his Home United days, the other players would tell me stories about how Hassan is very professional and always looks after himself – sleeping early, waking up early to get some stretching in, and sometimes even dragging the other boys along with him to do that when on overseas trips. This of course meant that they would have to give up any night activities because Hassan would call them up at 6am or so to drag them out to stretch.
Given his professionalism, age truly is just a number for him, and he still pulled off plenty of improbable saves last season. In fact, one might say that Hassan’s age works in his favour in that he is more experienced than Koga, who does have an error in him sometimes, especially due to his position during offensive phases (more on this later).
Statistics – Comparing the two when it comes to percentage of shots saved, Hassan comes out ahead, at 68%, compared to Koga’s 64%. This stat is all the more impressive considering that Hassan’s stats include our AFC Champions League campaign where we played against much better opposition as compared to our SPL teams.
Another stat that jumps out at me is the number of “supersaves” that are made by the respective keepers. Hassan’s 1.19 supersaves a game is considerably more than Koga’s 0.76.
Of course, what is defined as a supersave is subjective and depends on how Instat classifies them – but I think just based on the eye-test, we Sailors fans can remember numerous difficult saves that Hassan was required to make last year. He more than deserves to be called Superman.
Playing style – The last comparison is playing style. I think from what we’ve seen so far, Hassan is more than an adequate replacement for Koga. I think that he will be an upgrade on Koga. But how will he slot in to the Albirex style of play?
I think one thing to note is that Koga leaves his line way more often to claim the ball than Hassan. If you look at the stats comparison above, you will see that Hassan averages 1.09 GK exits a game, while Koga averages 1.79 GK exits a game. The eye-test confirms this as well. Hassan rarely leaves his line.
Another thing to compare is the ball touches map below. You can clearly see that Koga is a more “adventurous” keeper – for better or for worse. Fans of the SPL will know that Koga has been caught in no-man’s land on more than a few occasions in the past two seasons, which have led to embarrassing goals or moments. High-risk, high-reward I suppose – sometimes coming out to claim the ball can relieve the pressure on your defence and stop potentially dangerous situations.
Conclusion
What does this mean for Albirex and for Hassan? Well of course this comparison is not conclusive, but I think Hassan may need to adapt a little to the Albirex playstyle. He will be expected to shuffle more across the box to pick up passes from his defenders, and then play the ball out. His defenders may also need to adapt to a keeper who doesn’t come out as much.
Overall though, there is no doubting that Hassan will be a good signing for Albirex. I don’t think there is a significant gulf between the quality of Koga and Hassan, despite Koga’s inconsistency this season, but where the impact may be felt more keenly is that it clearly weakens the Sailors.
The drop-off from Hassan to whoever is going to replace him is going to be a large one, especially because Izwan is out with an ACL injury. We will do a statistical comparison when the replacement is announced (rumoured to be Zharfan Rohaizad), but I think the national team pecking order tells its own story – Hassan is far and away the best goalkeeper in our land.
TL;DR – Hassan to Albirex will strengthen them slightly, but will weaken the Sailors by a lot. Sad.
(Written by Eddy, with stats taken from football.instatscout.com)
