It was not entirely surprising that we lost to Albirex Niigata (S). They are table-toppers and reigning champions for a reason. Anyway, that match is done, we move on. I don’t really wanna talk about it anymore. You can read my post-match thoughts here, or come back later tomorrow when we publish our tactical analysis of the game (HURRY UP ZACH!).
We take on second-from-bottom Tanjong Pagar United, and I think we are strong favourites to bounce back from this one – but let’s just give you some food for thought in case you think it will be a walk in the park based on their recent form.
Deceptive Form + Player Availability
At first glance, you’d think they are in terrible form, and that this will be a stroll. However, if you look closely at those games, they were all over Geylang and perhaps should have scored more than once before Geylang hit back with 2 goals, and they ran Tampines and Balestier very close. It is not easy to do that, because Tampines and Balestier are the form teams in the league, with better form than us at the moment. TPU have simply been on a very tough run.
They did lose to us 7-1 the last time, but that was a match where Blake Ricciuto and Shakir Hamzah were both suspended. That really ripped the spine of the team right out of TPU, so I am not surprised at how easy it was to dismantle them last time out. They also posed very little offensive threat to us, though they did score a good goal from a well-worked corner kick. With Shakir and Blake back, they have both their joint 2nd top-scorers and their 1st and 3rd most prolific assist-makers lining up for them. It’s a huge boon for them.
Two players who played against us the last time we met sit this one out. Mirko Sugic is suspended for amassing 4 yellow cards, while Fathullah Rahmat has gone for National Service. This will be good for us as we hope to dominate the midfield, as it somewhat offsets the return of Blake.
Chris van Huizen is available for selection again as he returns from reservist training, and I wonder if he will get a start – Nur Adam has played a lot of football in the last 10 days or so. Chris also offers an extra dimension in that he can swing in excellent crosses from the left if we struggle to break down TPU’s backline.
Abdul Rasaq came on against Albirex and so will most likely be available for this game – unless this photo suggests that he may have had a minor hand procedure done. Not sure!
Will Coach Ranko try something radically different and name 2 strikers? It would be quite a sight I think, seeing Abdul Rasaq flanked by Maxime Lestienne and Richairo Zivkovic, with both of them very capable of cutting in to wreak havoc. Let’s hope for some shuffling around as I think the players do look a little tired.
TPU’s Foreign Players
Marin Mudrazija and Pedro Dias have not impressed or even played much in the league this season. I went down to the U21 game between TPU and LCS last night at Jurong East Stadium, and the pair of them played the full 90min. Marin was full of hard running, and even scored the winning goal, while Pedro Dias was imperious in the air, winning every aerial challenge that came his way. If you’re wondering about the Sailors, Haiqal Pashia was the most-utilised attacking outlet by us, and came closest to scoring for us. Rusyaidi Salime was an absolute beast, as he seemed to smash anything that was in his way (legally, as well), drawing angry responses from some TPU fans.
It was a nice experience being in the stadium for a U21 game for the first time, to see the standard of play and hopefully gain some insight into who is bubbling under for the Sailors. I thought captain Asis showed many good touches and is one to look out for as he hopefully gains more minutes with the senior team. A secondary consideration for me going down was so that I could make educated guesses about who was going to play tomorrow.
Marin Mudrazija has had his fair share of critics, although he still remains the top-scorer for TPU with 5 goals (3 of them have been penalty kicks). He does seem to be out of favour, having not featured at all in the past 2 games. Could it be an injury and they played him in the U21 game to let him regain some fitness? Even if so, it would be a bit strange to play him for the whole game.
Pedro Dias is much the same – he seems to be really out of favour as well after suffering a spate of injuries earlier this season plus a suspension. Having seen him complete a dominant 90min, it is pretty clear that he is back to full fitness. However, once again I do not think he will play in tomorrow’s game.
Physical Approach of the TPU Players
TPU is known to be a team that has a reputation for a strong fighting spirit – sometimes literal. They are the team with the joint-most number of red cards in the league (5). There are some interesting stats to pick out for TPU when it comes to fouls and cards.
While they have the lowest number of fouls in the league, they have the most number of yellow cards and the joint-most number of red cards. It suggests that their players go in hard on the tackle or they are prone to getting involved in scraps/scuffles. Coach Ranko may want to push for an early lead so that at half-time we can preserve some of our more important players for the tougher games that will come ahead, and to protect them from unnecessary injury.
Conclusion
There is not much more that needs to be said about this game. Both teams come into this in poor form and will be eager to get back to winning ways. On paper, the Sailors are the much better side, but as we have found out the hard way against DPMM twice this season, the better team does not always win.
Maxime and Diego have looked a little bit off relative to their usually high standards in the past 2 games, and we will be hoping that they can provide the platform for the team to resume normal service. Maxime has gone 2 games without scoring or assisting – let’s not make it 3.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
Score Prediction
Joseph and I predict the scores and track our success in a table. Stay tuned to find out who is the prediction king!
3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw).
Eddy’s prediction: LCS 4 TPU 0
Joseph’s prediction: LCS 4 TPU 1
And here’s the leaderboard –
Written by Eddy Hirono
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