April 5, 2025

On paper, this is a no-brainer – comfortable Lion City Sailors win. It’s top v second-bottom team in the league. What could go wrong? Let’s dive right into some quick thoughts on why Young Lions shouldn’t be underestimated, and also why we might not have it all our way tonight. Young Lions Picking Up Form While YL’s position looks bad, a closer inspection of the table shows that they are actually right on the tail of DPMM and Hougang United, especially if you take into account their game in hand. Impressively, even after losing top-scorer Itsuki Enomoto to BG Tampines in the transfer window, they seem to have picked up some positive results in 2025. Many people, myself included, predicted that they would fall away, but the stats paint a different picture. The stats would suggest that the team has more than made up for Enomoto’s absence, with the goals coming from other sources. They have also posted impressive results in the Singapore Cup, such as a 3-0 win over Hougang United, and a 7-1 hammering of Albirex Niigata (S). In the end. they narrowly missed out on qualification for the knockout stages. They are no pushovers now. Mindset Heading into the Game This is something I’ve talked about at length before. It’s been a very long season, and when we talk about the daily grind, I think the grind for the players is grindier than it’s ever been. Especially with a huge tie against Sydney FC on the horizon, I don’t think we can blame the players for feeling like these league games are a bit of a hindrance – something to get it over and done with as soon as possible. Will the players go in a little less hard, fearing that any sort of injury now is potentially a season-ending one? Will they want to exert less energy, saving themselves for the game against Sydney on Wednesday? Will Coach Ranko rotate with Wednesday in mind? So many variables, and of course, no real way of finding out. While we have a comfortable lead in the league, BG Tampines has been plugging away and the gap is now down to 4 points (though we have 2 games in hand). There is room to drop points, but losing would perhaps give BG Tampines some hope that they can claw their way back into the title race. The Return of Bill Mamadou Bill Mamadou went out to Young Lions in February to get more game time, and that’s a move that can only be beneficial for him. His development was stalling in the Sailors where he found minutes hard to come by. Since he’s joined the Young Lions, he has looked confident, and will be pumped up to deliver against his parent club today, to prove any doubters wrong. Let’s hope he doesn’t cause too much trouble for our forwards! Maxime Lestienne It’s not that we need Max for this game, but fans have been eager to know if he is going to be available for the Sydney game. Well, I don’t have any insider info on this, but I am guessing not based on his Instastories – Not sure if any dog in Singapore would need to wear such thick clothing. This suggests he could be back home in Belgium, recuperating from his injury. It looked like a dislocated elbow, and healing times for those can range from a few weeks to a couple of months. I don’t think we will see him on the pitch or even on the bench tonight, but fingers crossed he’s back for the Sydney game in some capacity. Conclusion Short preview for a game where everyone on and off the pitch will be thinking ahead to the Sydney FC game. Hopefully it’s not too much of a distraction that our players end up dropping points. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Chris van Huizen, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Diogo Costa Hami Syahin, Song Ui-Young Obren Kljajic, Lennart Thy, Bart Ramselaar 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! Eddy’s prediction: Young Lions 0 Sailors 2 Joseph’s prediction: Young Lions 0 Sailors 5 Written by Eddy Hirono If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!