July 4, 2023

1-7 on 1 July. Can’t make this up. We mentioned in the preview that Tanjong Pagar United (TPU) would be there for the taking because of Shakir’s suspension, and how important he was both to TPU’s attack and defence. What came as a bit of a surprise was that Blake Ricciuto was also suspended – which is strange cos the SPL website listed him as only having accumulated 3 yellow cards. For those not super clear about the rules, you need to accumulate 4 yellow cards before being suspended for a game – this is why Shakir was suspended. I guess the SPL website made an error. If anyone knows any other reason why Blake was suspended, drop us a DM! An Intense Start – Pressing TPU High Had I known that Blake was also suspended for this game, I would have been even more bullish in my appraisal of the Sailors’ chances of getting a handsome victory. TPU without Blake and without Shakir – that’s basically half their attacking threat gone. The Sailors definitely smelled blood, and in the first few minutes alone, the pressing was relentless in TPU’s defensive third, which led to chances for us. As early as 9 seconds in, Hami wins the ball here after a soft pass is played into midfield. From here, Maxime is presented with a great chance he should have scored from – we would have been ahead in 14 seconds. At the 1min 31 second mark, look at how intent on pressing TPU we are here, and how high we are. This was a pattern that continued, and ultimately resulted in Anu doing superbly well on the 9min mark to intercept a slow pass and his touch broke for Lestienne to slam home right-footed. It was a superb reward for an absolutely dominant first 10min of the game where we smelled blood, and kept going for it. Anu was very impressive all game, and his intensity was matched by his teammates. The rest of the game was much the same – as we looked to keep up the intensity and press TPU high. Instead of breaking down every single goal, I will try to summarise some of my thoughts. Local Boys Stepping Up Back in the preview to the Albirex game, I wrote about how the team was a little too reliant on Diego Lopes and Maxime Lestienne. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote – In the last 2 games, you have seen how Adam Swandi’s advanced position has allowed us to reap dividends. 2 goals, 1 assist against Hougang, and now 2 assists against Tanjong Pagar. 5 goal contributions in 2 games is not to be sniffed at. Perhaps another stat that has gone unnoticed is that of the 10 goals scored in the last 2 games, 7 were scored by our local boys. Of the 9 assists recorded (winning a penalty doesn’t count as an assist), 7 were from our local boys. No prizes for guessing who supplied the remaining 2 assists. This is vital for our play to progress, and for us to become harder to neutralise. The Sailors are not a two-man team, and there is no excuse for us to be reliant on the magic of two players to bail us out. Lionel Tan and Hami Syahin also got their first goals of the season. Much, much needed. It is funny because we interviewed Lionel last week after the Hougang game and jokingly talked about his goalscoring threat – he said he hoped to contribute his first goal for the team soon. Bang, right on cue, 7 days later, he delivered. We spoke to Hami after the game too and he shared with us about how he was so scared that his one and only goal was going to be chalked off by the VAR. It was funny but ultimately he got the goal. More to come from the both of them, hopefully! Oh, and shout-out to Nur Adam Abdullah for handling his defensive duties well and still being able to get 2 assists in 2 games! Diego Lopes – The Secondary Assister If you look purely at goals and assists, Diego’s influence this season has not been as obvious as Maxime Lestienne’s. Of course, it looks like I am being incredibly harsh here considering that Maxime is top of both goals and assists in the charts. Diego isn’t far behind when it comes to assists, but in terms of goalscoring threat, there is no doubt that Maxime is the man who you usually count on to deliver. But this ignores something else that Diego is very good at. Much like Ozil and Hleb (yes, my Arsenal upbringing is really coming through here), Diego is the king of the “pass-before-the-assist“. As seen above in a chart ranking players on the “secondary assist” (an ice hockey concept crediting the player who made a pass for the assister to pass to the goalscorer), he has done it 7 times this season. The last memorable one was his outside-of-the-boot flick to set Maxime free down the left wing to cross for Abdul Rasaq in the 3-2 victory over Albirex – it was truly sumptuous. His through pass on Saturday night to allow the Maxime-Rasaq combination to happen again was no less delicious, and it was played with such precision that it allowed Maxime to cross the ball without breaking stride, and of course, Abdul Rasaq was there to finish. The secondary assist is sometimes harder to accomplish than the actual assist itself. Especially against packed defences, sometimes unlocking the defence by putting a player in behind the back four/five is more difficult because it requires precision and bravery to make the pass between covering defenders. If you look at the situation below, it is not immediately apparent what Diego should do, but he has the presence of mind to spot Maxime’s run and weight the pass perfectly (too much power and it allows the keeper