Author name: Eddy Hirono

Prior to the Tampines game, the Sailors were spoken about by most people as shoo-ins for the title, with Tampines and Geylang perhaps able to put up tough fights, but ultimately falling short as the Sailors machine kicks into gear with better depth at its disposal, and overall just better quality. One humiliating result later, suddenly the Sailors are a club in crisis, there are calls for Rankovic to be sacked, and everything is called into question. Such is the nature of sports nowadays – it is a results industry. When you lose 5-0 to a title rival to record your club’s biggest-ever margin of defeat, and fail to force the opposing goalkeeper into making a save, the negative noise really builds. Sailors fans start lashing out at individuals, such as Zharfan (who made a horrendous error for the 2nd goal, but was otherwise blameless for the rest of the goals), such as Hariss (someone who is relied upon coach after coach, but yet finds himself having to prove his worth over and over again) – but forget that it was a team failure. Who on that pitch actually came off with any credit? Tampines fans by and large are fine – but you will see a few crawling out of the gutter now and again. You see them on LCS’s IG posts, on SFT’s various social media posts. Gloating and laughing. Money can’t buy history, they say. I say to them I wish money could buy manners, because obviously they lack the class and grace to behave in a befitting manner. Don’t be a sore loser, but don’t be an ungracious winner as well. As much as we hate the negative noise, I am sure the players hate it too. They probably hate it more. A win tonight will not kill all the negative noise. We could win 22-0 with each member of the squad getting a goal at least, and get 98% possession, and people will say “Ah it’s just Young Lions” – but fail to win, and you can be sure the negative noise will reach 400 decibels. So are we gonna win? Let’s dive right into the preview. More Fighting Spirit Whatever happens tonight, the Sailors fans will want to see more fighting spirit. Against Tampines, while noone said it aloud, we were all waiting for something to spark the fans into life. Yes, the Crew and some members of the crowd were chanting – but we needed something to unite everyone. A moment of controversy, a blood-and-thunder tackle – just something for the fans to hold on to, to believe that the team out there is fighting for us. When Shah Shahiran, Yasir Hanapi and Irfan Najeeb are passing circles around you when the score is 5-0, I think the fans wouldn’t have minded if one of our players went ahead and barged a Tampines player to the floor. Yellow card? No worries. At least show you are not a training cone. It was interesting that in a post-match interview, Ranko said one of the positives was that noone got a red card. I find it interesting because that’s not a normal comment a coach makes, but also because it reveals that Ranko thought some of our players might be so frustrated that they take it out on the Tampines players. I think there’s a middle ground – you don’t have to go in and try to maim someone and get a red card, but you can absolutely be a bit more physical to show you are not ready to be messed around with, Zlatkovic did it to Nathan Mao last year, and even in last weekend’s game, Boris’s dirty challenge was meant to do exactly that – to intimidate, to distract, to assert dominance. Against the Young Lions, there may be times when the chips are down – and when that happens, I hope to see a more fighting response this time. Let’s show people that Sailors are not just about quality players, it is also about players who fight for the badge, and are willing to eliminate any obstacles in our way. Young Lions a Threat from Set Pieces With a total of 5 goals from set pieces, Young Lions are joint-top of this stat with Balestier Khalsa. However, given that Balestier Khalsa also score many more goals, a greater percentage of Young Lions goals comes from set pieces – a whopping 38%. Kaisei Ogawa is usually the architect of this success, and has 4 assists under his belt this season. Set pieces is something Joseph spoke passionately about in the aftermath of the 5-0 defeat to Tampines. I think while set-piece goals are inevitable and every team does concede them, it is the manner which really got Joseph annoyed. Irfan Najeeb was unchallenged as he headed the ball in from Faris’s corner. That came minutes after Boris Kopitovic was also unmarked with yards of space to fire home from Glenn Kweh’s cutback. Our marking will definitely have to be better if we are to get a clean sheet tonight – the Young Lions clearly work on their setpieces. Enomoto the Dangerman with Farhan Zulkifli the Wildcard Enomoto is their top-scorer with 6 goals. In the previous preview, I marked him out as someone who came with a reputation for being good in the air (in aerial duels). He has since proven to be quite useful there, especially in providing the Young Lions with a long-ball option should they need it. He has also scored once with his head this season. I like his movement a lot, and he is a major reason why Young Lions are looking competitive in all the matches they have played in this year. The other one to look out for is of course, the livewire Farhan Zulkifli. He hasn’t completed the full 90 a lot this season, and on a few occasions started from the bench. Not sure why that would be considering that I think

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

With the Sailors 2nd in the table (with Tampines Rovers having played one more game), and Tanjong Pagar languishing in the bottom 3, everyone is expecting the Sailors to just turn up and win. In this preview, we’ll look at Tanjong Pagar’s performances thus far, assess the need for rotation, and answer the question “Is it really gonna be that easy for our Sailors to beat Tanjong Pagar?“ Tanjong Pagar have an Awful Attack Yes. The answer to the question posed above is “Yes”. I couldn’t say Yes loud enough. For those who are of a certain vintage, imagine the “Yes” to be as resounding and as loud as Sally’s “Yes” in the restaurant in 1989 classic film When Harry Met Sally. With 6 goals in 5 games, Tanjong Pagar have the joint-worst attack along with Albirex Niigata (S). (At the time of writing, Albirex have played one more game and failed to add to their goal tally, after a disastrous 6-0 loss to Geylang.) They create very few chances because they sit back most of the time, and thus struggle to get bodies into attack. Their top-scorer is Salif Cisse, who has overcome a slow start to the season to score 2 goals in his last 2 games. He has looked quite a handful, even if his CV is quite unimpressive. In fact, by scoring 2 goals, he has already equalled his highest-ever season tally. Of course, some of those leagues, like the French 2nd tier, Bulgarian 1st tier, and the Lithuanian 1st tier, are likely to be of a higher standard than our SPL. It seems he has finally found his level in the SPL, and if they are to get anything from the game, much hope should lie on Salif Cisse’s shoulders. The other player that our Sailors will do well to try to shut down will be Shodai Nishikawa, a player more known usually for his industry than for his skill. He has 3 assists in his last 2 games. Overall though, with the lowest xG in the league, and our defence being the stingiest in the league, we should be keeping Tanjong Pagar at bay. Is Their Defence as Bad as it Seems? If you asked someone not to refer to the table and guess where Tanjong Pagar lies in terms of goals conceded, I think most would guess that they are near the bottom. However, with 14 goals conceded, they are actually near the middle of the table when it comes to number of goals conceded. Young Lions (19), Hougang (20), and Albirex (23) have worse defensive records, whiile Brunei DPMM have conceded the same number of goals (14). Teams like Geylang and Balestier have only conceded one fewer goal than Tanjong Pagar. Why then, is there this impression that Tanjong Pagar cannot defend? Upon closer inspection, one stat perhaps goes some way to explaining this. Out of the 14 goals conceded by Tanjong Pagar, 12 have been inside the penalty area, but even more shockingly, 7 have been scored from inside the 6-yard box. Half their goals! This suggests that Tanjong Pagar is laying the red carpet out for teams to slice them right open and walk their way into goal. This stat is all the more surprising when you consider that Tanjong Pagar sit so deep inside their own half for the majority of the game. Against the tricky and skilful players that the Sailors have, Tanjong Pagar might find themselves having a tough time. Bart’s Injury Brings Up Interesting Possibilities Bart limped off in the game against Geylang, and was clutching the back of his hamstring. We have no injury updates to go on, so I am gonna assume that he will be sitting this game out, because usually even the slightest of hamstring strains rules a player out for about 2 weeks. Add to that the fact that we are facing a team much weaker than us, and I truly believe there will be some common sense applied to protect a player who is so key to the way we play. Simply put, we shouldn’t have to rely on him being available to beat Tanjong Pagar. This raises some interesting possibilities because we get to put another foreigner into the starting lineup. Our foreign players selected has usually been – Maxime Lestienne, Lennart Thy, Bart Ramselaar, Toni Datkovic (any foreigner, any age) Bailey Wright (foreigner from AFC nation) Obren Kljajic (U21) Besides these players, there’s realistically only two players who can expect some gametime – Rui Pires, who cannot fit in the U21 or AFC foreigner slot and Sergio Carmona who takes up a U21 slot. It is interesting to note that Obren Kljajic is a versatile player not just in terms of on-pitch position, but also foreigner eligibility, because he can take up a U21 slot, or an AFC slot. If for some reason Bailey Wright isn’t playing, Obren could take his AFC spot, and that would allow Carmona to take the U21 slot. With Bart injured/rested, I think it might be timely for Rui Pires to make his return. He has been missing from the team because of injury, but he was featured in the Inside Training video released by the club yesterday. He has been out for some time, so I don’t expect him to start, but I think we might see him from the bench. Something to look forward to. It seems apt also to comment on a recent debate that took place – some fans (both LCS fans and rival fans) felt that LCS did not plan their transfers well, because they had more foreigners than they could play. On the contrary, I think it is fantastic planning. Having one additional first-team foreigner might mean that someone gets disgruntled, but that is something that coaches need to take care of. By having an additional foreigner of first-team quality, it offers the Sailors some security in our options. Should we unfortunately lose someone to an

The league’s two highest-scoring teams meet – Geylang with 22 goals from 5 games, and our Sailors, with 16 goals from 4 games. Very impressive goalscoring form from both sides, but the weird fact that pops out to me is that Geylang have conceded 4 goals from the penalty spot this season. That is unusually high considering there have only been 7 penalties awarded this season. Can we draw any conclusions from that stat? Will either team lose their unbeaten start to the season thus far? Let’s dive right into the preview. Goals, goals, goals Geylang have the highest goals per game ratio in the whole league. They have scored 22 and conceded 12, which makes it a whopping 6.8 goals per game. They have certainly been a fun side to watch. Our Sailors as well, have scored 16, but I think you don’t need to have a very good memory to remember that almost half of those were directly contributed by that game against Albirex. So does this mean that this is going to be a goalfest? Well, not necessarily. It really depends on how Geylang is going to set up. Is Noor Ali likely to continue with his side’s swashbuckling ways against our Sailors? I doubt he will. Seeing Albirex get absolutely ripped apart on the counter-attack is likely to figure in his thinking a little. If you’ve watched Geylang games this season, you’ll notice that they get good numbers into the box, and they always support the attack. This is partly due to the coaching philosophy, but partly also due to the personnel Noor Ali has at his disposal. In previous seasons, Bezecourt used to be the most advanced of the midfielders, and would regularly pop up right behind the striker. However this year, due to the recruitment of Ryoya Taniguchi, and possibly also because of the injury to Huzaifah Aziz, Bezecourt has been played in a deeper position. That doesn’t mean he is holding back in midfield, he gets involved in the attack quite a bit too. You put an attack-minded player in central midfield, and then ahead of him you have attacking talents like Iqbal, Ryoya, Doi, and Naqi – it is no wonder the players always seem to be in and around the box. Their attacking instincts are well-suited for the way they want to play. However, as mentioned above, I suspect Noor Ali will rein his players in a little. Our Sailors usually leave at least two forwards up (Maxime + 1 other) when we defend, so Geylang might find it difficult to get as many players up in attack as they usually do. If they do choose to sit back a little, they will have to trust that whatever chances they can create upfront are put away by their star striker, Tomoyuki Doi. Tomoyuki Doi is a Goalscoring Machine Maradoina, van Nisteldoi, Ronaldoi, Lewandoiski. Call him what you want, but this man scores goals. He is the current top-scorer of the SPL with 9 goals. If you add in his assists as well (2), he is responsible for half of Geylang’s goals. He has also scored in every game this season. The praise doesn’t stop there. He has scored 9 goals from a total xG of just 4.61, which goes to show how clinical he is, and how he is helping turn half-chances into goals. 5 goals on his stronger right foot, 3 goals on his weaker left foot, 1 goal with his head – man’s an all-rounder. Of his 9 goals, 3 have come from outside the box, showing that he really is a striker who can do it all. Back in 2021, he was both the SPL Player of the Year and also the league top-scorer with 19 goals in a shortened season. This year, he is on course to do much better than that. He is the obvious dangerman, and if we are to keep a clean sheet, our defenders and keeper are gonna have to be on top form. Geylang’s Shaky Defence If all that talk about Tomoyuki Doi has got you feeling a little pessimistic, perhaps this section might cheer you up a little. Geylang’s record of 12 goals conceded is equal to that of Tanjong Pagar’s (albeit having played 1 game more). Let that sink in. Tanjong Pagar Utd this season feels like the kind of team that can get relegated even though there is no relegation in the SPL. And Geylang have conceded as many goals as them. Compare that with the Sailors having conceded only 3 goals thus far, and it’s a world of a difference. If you ask me, I think there are two key differences. When you see players like Shakir Hamzah getting goals and assists, it’s nice to see, but the flipside of that is that if the transitions are done well, then it leaves big holes for opponents to exploit. Let’s now talk about Geylang’s penalty-conceding record. There have been 7 penalties awarded this season – 4 is more than half the penalties awarded, and even though it’s early days, it would seem that Geylang’s defence has a propensity for panicking in the box and committing rash fouls. You couple this unique stat with another rare one, that they have given up 2-goal leads 3 times in 5 games – and it goes a long way to show that Geylang has not got their defence sorted. Last week was the clearest example, when they somehow contrived to give up a 2-goal lead to 10-man Brunei DPMM. Conclusion Looking at both sides’ form heading into this one, it would seem like a no-brainer for this to be a high-scoring affair. But I don’t know – I feel like both sides will respect each other, and it might then lead to a bit of a tense atmosphere, especially in the first half. Just a weird feeling I have. Noor Ali should be aware that if he turns this into a shoot-out,

Games against Albirex don’t usually feel like this. For the first time in forever, we go in as overwhelming favourites. Albirex has the 2nd-worst attack in the league, scoring only 5 goals in 4 games. If you add the Community Shield to that, they have 5 goals in 5 games. Defensively? They aren’t much better there. Despite having Hassan Sunny in their ranks, they have conceded 10 goals in the league, a stat that is only better than Young Lions (14), and Hougang (15). Even Tanjong Pagar have conceded fewer goals. I said back in May before the Community Shield that the Albirex game was a chance to lay down a marker. Well, now it’s time to take that marker, unscrew the cap, and draw something funny on Albirex’s face. Not only must we beat Albirex this weekend, I think we have to convincingly demolish them to try and shake off some of the history against them, having lost two title races to them in recent seasons. Sputtering Attack It says something about Albirex’s attackers this season when they bring in an unknown Japanese striker from a US college team and he immediately doubles the goal tally of other established attackers such as Daniel Goh and Shuhei Hoshino. Daniel and Shuhei impressed last season. Daniel had 9 goals and 6 assists in all competitions, and was always a livewire down the right wing. Shuhei had 16 goals and 13 assists, and the pair of them were part of an impressive Balestier Khalsa attack that scored the 3rd-most goals in the league. It was perhaps this form that saw some rumours about our Sailors possibly signing Daniel Goh in the off-season. However, he has not been able to reach the heights of last season at all. Daniel has 1 goal and 0 assists this season, which is poor considering that he is often the focal point of the Albirex attack. At every opportunity, Albirex try to set Daniel Goh free down the right, but he has seldom been able to beat his man and put in a meaningful ball. Daniel’s only goal came in a loss against Tampines, an instinctive lob over Syazwan Buhari after a brilliant through pass from Shuhei Hoshino. That was Shuhei’s only assist of the season, and he too, has struggled to hit the form he achieved last season. With Daniel and Shuhei in poor form, our Sailors will feel confident of shutting out the Albirex attack. Brittle Defence And now we move on to the defence. I think it says a lot that if you ask people who are the standouts in this Albirex team, they will either tell you it’s Hassan Sunny, or their centreback Stevia Egbus Mikuni. The pair of them have been put under a lot of pressure, and despite their best efforts, Albirex still has the 3rd-weakest defence in the league. This is definitely not what Hassan Sunny signed up for. I mean I could end this whole article by saying that Albirex lost to 10-men Young Lions despite being in the lead. That should be enough to tell its own story of a defence that is so weak. Just look at how Enomoto scored the Young Lions’ 2nd goal last week. A routine long ball from defence, and Enomoto was 1v1 with Hassan Sunny. Simply unacceptable. But let’s take a deeper look. Of the 10 goals Albirex have conceded this season, 8 have been from open play. 8 of the goals have also been scored from inside the box. It suggests that that they are easy to play through. The eye-test also confirms that they have real problems defending transitions. Take the above for example. It’s 2-2, Albirex are defending against 10-man Young Lions, and somehow they overcommit in the near side of the box, drawn by the threat of Farhan Zulkifli after he made a promising run down the left flank. How can one man draw the attention of 4 players like that, leaving Andrew Aw the freedom of the box? Similarly here, too much attention is paid to the man with the ball, and there’s a complete lack of midfield cover to notice that there are 2 DPMM players at the top of the box with nobody marking them at all. One is outside the box, while the other is Julio Cruz, who buries this chance easily. Ho Wai Loon has over-committed and his midfield teammmates did him no favours by not chasing back in time. You will see this happening again tomorrow I think – players sucked into situations but not affecting the ball or the dribbler enough, leading to free men ready to punish Albirex. Lennart Thy There was quite a bit of criticism for Lennart Thy on his debut. When I spoke to him after the game, he seemed kinda disappointed as well – or maybe he is just a man of few words. Naumovski did well to deny him, and of course, I think he had further chances with his head and left foot that he did not take. Some people on The Final Whistle Telegram chat immediately wrote him off. Sailors fans are likely to be more patient, as we remember that Richairo Zivkovic had a slow start for us too, but then went on to become a regular goalscorer for us. In fact, something interesting to note – Richairo debuted against DPMM last year but did not manage to get a goal, but scored against Albirex in the next game. Our next game? Albirex. Aside from the chances, I was quite impressed with Lennart’s play. He gives us an option to go long from the back, as he is quite tall and strong. Twice in the game against DPMM, a long hopeful ball was played out from the back and he managed to knock it down to a teammate. This gives us greater variety in our build-up options. Shawal Anuar How is Shawal Anuar 33? His pace, his agility, his gravity-defying leaps