[Preview] Sailors v Tampines Rovers (Super Similar Sides)

Our Sailors take on Tampines in a top-of-the-table battle between two clubs that have had very very similar starts to the season. We’re both on the same number of points, have scored the same number of goals, and have the best and second-best defensive records in the league. Truly neck and neck stuff out there.

Have you ever wondered why when two teams are close, they are described as being “neck and neck“? I wondered if it had its origins in athletics, where two runners would be close to each other – but that would be strange, why would their necks be near each other?

So I did some digging, and it turns out that the phrase has its origins in horse racing, where two horses in competition give off the appearance that their necks are side by side. Ok TIL. Let’s gallop right into the preview.

The Two Best Defences in the League

That the Sailors and Tampines have such good defensive records is not by chance or sheer dumb luck. If you wonder whether it’s both sides’ respective keepers bailing them out, it’s not that either.

Both teams simply concede very few shots to begin with. The Sailors (9.9) and Tampines (9.6) are the only two teams to concede an average number of shots lesser than 10 every game. For context, the next closest is Hougang with 12.0 shots per game conceded, and then Geylang with 13.1 shots conceded per game.

Some of it is down to the quality of the defenders themselves. Milos Zlatkovic and Shuya Yamashita are amongst the most solid centrebacks in the league, while I don’t think anyone can disagree with the contention that Bailey Wright and Toni Datkovic is the meanest central defensive pairing in the league this season.

However, some of it is also due to how “boring” both teams are. I say this with a lot of love for our Sailors of course, and with some admiration for our rivals in black and yellow. Both teams are the best in the league at controlling games. Part of this is due to the individual quality up front.

When you have top-quality attackers, you do not need to throw too many men forward to create numerical overlaps. Take a look at LCS’s fullbacks for example. Lionel Tan tucks in to form a back three when he starts at right-back, while Obren Kljajic is given more licence to roam down the left. However, you seldom see Obren pop into the box to create chances or even go all the way to the byline.

Part of that may be down to him shifting the primary responsibility of creating to his more esteemed teammates like Bart, Shawal and Maxime, but part of it also is that he doesn’t make penetrative runs all the time – he picks and chooses his moments.

You compare that with Geylang, where routinely, you will see players like Shakir Hamzah, Naqiuddin Eunos given free rein down the left and right flanks – which undoubtedly leaves gaps behind when they get hit on the counter.

While I would also like our Sailors to be more attacking – I realise how far our defence has come. There was a time (exactly one year ago), where I was bemoaning this stat.

Being top of the table for most stats is good. Zharfan may take some pride in being the keeper with the most saves in July last year, but it means that the rest of the team is not doing a great job protecting the keeper. Just look last year at where Syazwan Buhari (41 saves) and Hassan Sunny (31 saves) are.

Related point – Onana had the most saves of all goalkeepers in the English Premier League last season too.

All that being said, I guess my point is this – we are conservative and it is paying off in terms of results. We are unbeaten, and have been unbeaten in our last 12 matches. Tampines are too, and have their own unbeaten run to protect.

Their Dangermen

No prizes for guessing who their two dangermen are. Seia Kunori has made a great start to life at Rovers, while Boris Kopitovic keeps up his impressive penalty-scoring record. Congratulations to Boris for scoring goals no. 100 and 101 for the Rovers over the weekend. I am kinda glad he achieved it against DPMM so we don’t have to see it happen against us. I am also reliably informed that out of the 101 goals he has scored for them, 98 were from the penalty spot, while the remaining 3 goals were tap-ins from 2 yards out.

I kid, I kid. It’s a great achievement and we’d do well to shackle him properly. This season, he has scored 8 goals, and at least 1 in each of his 7 appearances. All 8 goals have been scored in the penalty area, showing his prowess in the area. 3 of his 8 goals have come via the penalty spot. He has also picked up 2 assists to boot.

10 goal contributions in 7 games – that is elite territory. I mean, Maxime has 13 in 7 games, but Maxime is far and away the best player in the league. Inside the box, if we give Boris a sniff, we’re screwed.

Then we move on to Seia Kunori.

Seia is a more well-rounded threat than Boris – and is also one who doesn’t really stick to a certain position. This season, we’ve seen him pop up wide left, wide right, behind the striker, in the striker position. He will be hard to keep tabs on because of his constant movement, and his ability to use both feet. Of his 5 goals scored this season, 3 have come via his left foot, while 2 have come via his right.

What is also quite worrying for us is that if we retreat into our box to defend, he has the ability to hurt us from range as well. 3 of his 5 goals have come from outside the penalty area, and we’d do well to close him down whenever he is in shooting range.

With 4 assists to go along with his 5 goals, he has also shown himself to be an unselfish player who likes to link up with his teammates. I am confident that Boris can be shackled by Bailey and Toni – who have shut out Tomoyuki Doi and Kodai Tanaka, both strikers who entered the games against us in hot form. However, I wonder if we can be similarly successful in keeping Seia away from our goal.

Easier said than done, but if we can disrupt Boris and Seia, half the job is done.

The Middle

In this section – I wanna talk about how our Sailors seem to avoid playing in the middle of the pitch when we attack. Is it tactical instruction because playing it to the flanks is safer if we lose possession? Is it the unavailability of Bart? I don’t know.

Sidetrack. Which song titled “The Middle” is better? The Middle by Jimmy Eat World, or The Middle by Zedd, Maren Morris, Grey? Something for you to answer while reading I guess. I love them both, probably gonna lean towards the former.

Ok, Bart isn’t gonna be available for this one I think. In the game against Balestier, he didn’t start presumably because he was carrying an injury. He was subbed on when we had real trouble breaking Balestier down. And after scoring a goal to break the deadlock, he went off with an injury again. It doesn’t look good at all, especially with the turnaround time being so short.

I am sure I am not the only one who’s realised that all our attacks seem to come down the flanks. We don’t seem to want to do quick 1-2s in the middle of the pitch, or indeed have someone drive right through the middle. I think we certainly do have the personnel to do it – but for some reason we are not. Even without Bart, Song and Adam Swandi should be more than capable of receiving the ball in between the defence and the midfield, and then driving at the backline.

To spread out the attacking threat a little more, we have to try playing down the middle sometimes. We have to be unafraid of receiving the ball in those pockets of space, and turning to face the defence when there’s no pressure. Shah and Kyoga are usually the deepest-lying midfielders in this Tampines set-up, and they are not the most defensively-inclined players. I feel the Balestier game was probably a dress-rehearsal for us in the midfield because they too played with two midfielders who are not famed for their defensive capabilities. I’d like to see our players take them on.

Tampines are likely to dominate possession – but when we win the ball, I hope to see daring exchanges of passes between our players, and quick moving of the ball from side to side. In the Balestier game, the reluctance to play to the man in the middle meant that we had to recycle possession through our defenders way too many times, and that often killed the momentum in our counters.

Conclusion

With two conservative sides going up against each other, it may come down to who takes their chances better. And when it’s that kind of game, you have to back our Sailors given our superior quality in attack. The lack of Bart Ramselaar will make us a little tentative, but I suspect that the rotated players coming back in will give us a big boost.

In particular, I fancy Shawal Anuar to really punish Tampines on the counter-attack. He has 4 goals and 5 assists so far this season despite not playing as many minutes as someone like Maxime Lestienne.

This game will give us a real indication of how the year’s title race will shape up. I can’t wait for it to kick off.

COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!

My predicted line-up

Zharfan Rohaizad

Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Chris van Huizen

Song Ui-Young, Hariss Harun, Hami Syahin

Maxime Lestienne, Lennart Thy, Shawal Anuar

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: Sailors 3 Tampines 1

Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 2 Tampines 0

Written by Eddy Hirono

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