Daily Musings – SailorFanTalk

Post-Match Thoughts – Half-Fit Kodai With a Brace (LCS 3 Tanjong Pagar 1)

Leave a Comment / Daily Musings, Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

This season, SailorFanTalk endeavours to do a Post-Match Thoughts article after every game, followed by a Tactical Analysis column (usually written by Zach Wu). The former focuses more on thoughts and opinions from our perspective as fans watching the game, while the latter is more technical and seeks to be more neutral in its analysis of gameplay – after all, it is written by a Hougang United fan! It has been an exhausting week content-wise for us at SailorFanTalk. Monday saw Joseph and myself head down to Mattar Road (where the LCS Training Centre is located) for Media Open Day. Tuesday saw me heading to Yahoo SEA HQ to record a podcast with the affable pair of Han Keong and Neil Humphreys. Wednesday was spent trying to collate all the material gathered from Monday’s Media Open Day and publish it before the season opener. Thursday saw the first-ever SailorFanTalk and The Goal Difference collab, and then of course, the most important of all, Friday was matchday. Perhaps it’s just my conditioning as an Arsenal fan, maybe it was due to the Sailors’ implosion last year, or maybe it was just the fatigue built up over the week trying to juggle SailorFanTalk with a demanding full-time job – for some reason, I walked into Bishan Stadium today predicting a 2-1 win, but deep inside expecting a Tanjong Pagar upset. I know it’s strange given the Sailors are way stronger on paper, but when I saw the lineup had no Shawal, no Anu, had a half-fit Kodai leading the line, and a new-look backline of Bill and Lionel, I felt a little apprehensive. Add to that the number of former Protectors/Sailors in the opposing lineup, including Naqi, Faizal, Tajeli, Kenji, Shahrin and of course Shakir, and that apprehension turned into a real palpable sense of unease. And so when Mirko Sugic stepped up to take the penalty, the Arsenal fan in me went “Ah, here we go again, same old shit again“. The penalty came after a spell of pressure that Tanjong Pagar had put us under, pressure that was non-existent in the first half. Luckily for us, he missed, and we went on to win pretty comfortably – we were never troubled that much after the penalty miss. A few thoughts post-game – The Hami-Jonan Show I’ve said it before all the way back from Home United days – Hami Syahin is an absolute gem in midfield. He is the Singaporean Thiago. Always getting on the ball, always using deft little touches to maneouvre the ball away from his opponents, and then using a combination of short and long passes to keep the play moving. However, with Shahdan in the club, Hami never really got his chance to play much for the Sailors (7 appearances only last season). Shahdan is an absolute maestro, and almost anything Hami can do, Shahdan can do better, except maybe dribbling at speed with the ball. Even so, I did question last season whether players like Hami could have been relied more upon nearing the tail-end of the season Hami finally got a chance to start tonight and he was magnificent. I would love to see the stats when they come out to confirm that whatever the fans observed is true. He must have played many progressive passes, and maintained a high passing percentage. Despite his small frame, he also put himself about and bravely entered into duels with intensity. It was overall, a very impressive performance. Hami then came off injured in the 81st minute – hopefully it’s just cramps. He was replaced by Jonan Tan, and the young lad who turns 17 in June came on to rapturous applause from the Crew. I think the fans were very excited to see the debut of someone so young, partly because it fills us Sailors fans with hope that despite all the high-profile departures, the club still has a solid youth pipeline to supplement the first team with. And so it proved. Jonan was certainly not lacking in confidence. It started even before he came on. With the crowd cheering his name while he waited for the substitution to be called, he looked at the supporters half in amusement and half in appreciation. Where other young players making their debut might be experiencing all sorts of butterflies in their stomach, Jonan did not look unnerved at all. He was tidy with his passing, and even drove through midfield with the ball on occasion. He started the move for the crucial second goal, riding a half-challenge, and playing a pass into Lestienne on the left wing for him to set up Kodai’s goal (more on this later). It must have been a pretty sweet moment for Jonan, and we are certainly hoping for more to come from him. We leave you with an amazing little fact. Our current Academy General Manager, Tan Li Yu, was Jonan’s first coach when he was just 5 years old. We can confirm that we have seen a super-cute picture from Li Yu on this, and we are unfortunately unable to share this with you! Just have to take our word for it that it’s super cute. More to come from Jonan I am sure! Kodai is only Half-Fit Let that sink in. Kodai was injured in the back-end of the Singapore Cup last season. Funnily enough, his injury (fractured toe) was apparently caused by Lionel Tan – and they are teammates now. Not just teammates, but when asked by Grandstand, Kodai said Lionel’s his best friend in the club. He has not played football for 3 mths, and only resumed light training with the team 2 weeks ago. In fact, in the post-match conference, Kodai said that he ran to hug Coach Risto after his goal because he was so grateful that Coach Risto showed faith in him to start him despite him not being in peak physical condition. Coach Risto himself described Kodai as only 50% fit. And yet,

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A Song in our Hearts

1 Comment / Daily Musings, Player Profiles / Eddy Hirono

The season starts on Friday, and while I’m sure you’re all excited to see our beloved Sailors again, a part of me still feels a tinge of sadness that club legend Song Ui-Young is not going to feature this year, after his departure to Nongbua Pitchaya. So before we leave the past behind and bring you all sorts of content for the season ahead, let’s take one last look back. Song’s first appearance for us was in 2012 (for Home Utd), and his last appearance for us was in 2022, so that makes it a decade of solid service for the club. Someone give the man a testimonial match! During that time, he thrilled us all with his goals and assists, captivated us with the quality of some of his goals, and last but not least, he represented us fans on the pitch with his tireless running and constant battling. This article has taken longer than usual to write, in part because I have been procrastinating, but also because how do you write something fitting for a club legend, something that does justice to the impact he had, and the huge hole he left in the heart of us fans? In the end, I decided that nothing is going to do justice to his legacy, but something is better than nothing, so here goes. Here is why we love our Singaporean Song. End Product What an unsexy and transactional title for the first reason we’ll miss our Korean-Singaporean superstar. We can’t run away from the truth though – a huge reason why we will miss him is because his numbers. His goals and assists will need to be made up by the rest of the team. In our earlier article (written before Song’s transfer to Nongbua Pitchaya) talking about Kodai Tanaka’s transfer to the Sailors, I had this to say: Yuuuuuup, I apologise. Clearly, I jinxed it and now Song is no more. Why did I even write that in the first place though? Let’s take a look at the stats from the last 5 years, when he started being deployed in attack / attacking midfield. Year Games Played Goals (G) Assists (A) G/A per Game 2018 26 19 4 0.88 2019 25 11 4 0.60 2020 12 9 0 0.75 2021 15 7 1 0.53 2022 31 16 4 0.65 Stats taken from Instat Just drawing from the stats above, it is perhaps not a stretch to say that whenever Song is on the pitch, the Sailors are more likely to score. Bear in mind that 2021 and 2022 saw Song having to share his minutes with many talented teammates as the Sailors started stockpiling quality in every position. However, whenever he was on the pitch, he was a threat. In our debut AFC Champions League campaign last year, many supporters in fact wanted to see Song play more than Kim Shin-Wook, and who could blame them? Song delivered the goods when it mattered most. He finished that campaign with 3 goals from 6 games, including 2 goals over K-League opposition Daegu FC. I remember being in the stands in Buriram and cheering like a madman when Song looped a header over the Daegu keeper to open the scoring in what would eventually be an epic 3-0 win, the Sailors’ first-ever win in the Champions League. Part ecstasy, part shock maybe – he was doing this to K-League opposition! But perhaps I should not have been so shocked – us supporters have a little nickname for Song. We call him “AFC Cup Song” because there’s some magic in continental football which seems to bring out the best in him. Who can forget how round after round, Song performed miracles in the AFC Cup, scoring a total of 8 goals in 10 games which eventually culminated in us winning the Zonal Finals against Ceres Negros FC. Filipino opposition, Indonesian opposition in hostile away grounds, under the lights at Jalan Besar Stadium – whoever, whereever, whenever, he did it all. He even scored in North Korea when he was still a South Korean citizen (gasps). Back to Buriram, and the 2022 Champions League campaign. Song even repeated the trick against Daegu, scoring an improbable volley from long range to threaten an upset in our final group game where qualification for the knockout stages hung in the balance. Alas, it was not to be, as we were knocked out of the competition, and little did we know, that was the last we would see of Song in continental competition. No more “AFC Cup” Song, and now, no more Song at all. This leaves us dangerously thin should we see an injury or severe loss of form for Kodai Tanaka. Abdul Rasaq has shown shoots of promise in his appearances for Young Lions last season, but he is a raw talent with 5 goals in 19 appearances for Young Lions. It would be unrealistic and unfair for the Sailors to rely on him should something happen to Tanaka. Bangers, bangers, bangers Alright, a slightly less transactional title this time. Song has over the years scored some absolute bangers – and in important matches too. Don’t just take my word for it – check out this compilation video we put together to highlight some of the ridiculous goals he scored. Once again, I will remind you that there is good reason to call him AFC Cup Song (hint: all the goals highlighted were from AFC competitions). Even in this small sample of goals we picked out, you will see that it consists of a left-foot banger from range, a right-foot banger from range, a looping header, and a placed finish after running past a whole bunch of defenders. A lot of variety for someone who is not just a goalscorer! An out-and-out striker would be pleased if he had such diversity in the goals he scored. The sheer quality of those goals captivated us. The crowd always went mad. Friends of mine

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Sailors Season Pass worth the money?

5 Comments / Daily Musings / Eddy Hirono

NOTE: This article was updated at 7:30pm on 11 Feb, roughly 24 hours after it was first published. The change is in the comparison table you will see below. A reader commented very helpfully that one advantage of the Season Pass holder is that they do not need to pay a SISTIC surcharge of S$1 per ticket. This SISTIC surcharge applies whether you buy a ticket in person at the ticketing counter, or online via SISTIC’s web portal. This thus makes a slight difference to how much you save as a Season Pass holder. However, the conclusion is still the same – the Season Pass seems a tad overpriced. Please continue reading this article to see my elaboration on that. This week saw the long-awaited release of Crew membership and Season Pass details by the club. I think it’s safe to say that there has been a lot of debate and unhappiness about the cost of the Season Pass (S$148), esp because it was priced at S$80 last year. In today’s post, I hope to be able to comprehensively present to you any and all facts that you may need to decide whether or not it’s worth it to get the Crew membership, and the Season Pass. First order of business, what is the difference? Crew Membership v Season Pass Crew Membership does NOT get you any tickets. It merely entitles you to a 20% discount on all home games (5 tickets per match). For popular games, you may still need to ensure you book early to secure your seat. From last year’s experience, this is not the case with the Season Pass, which guaranteed you a seat. However, to get the Season Pass, you need to first be a Crew member. What comes with the Crew Membership? What comes with the Season Pass? What about away games and home AFC games (i.e. Champions League or AFC Cup matches)? The Million-Dollar Question – Worth or not to sign up for Season Pass? Well not quite a million dollars, but it’s S$148 if you’re between the ages of 17 and 54. If you are 16 and below, or 55 and above, congrats – a Season Pass will only cost you S$88. So let’s do the math. I set out in a table below what you pay if you’re attending 10, 11, 12, or 15 games. This will hopefully provide a rough gauge for what you might want to go for, if you’re talking pure financial terms. Remember, it’s S$148 for the season pass, but I have factored in that you need to pay S$48 to be a Crew member before you can apply for the Season Pass, so the total is S$196. From the above tables, you can see how clear it is that being a Season Pass holder only makes sense if you are confident that you will be able to attend close to all of the games. It is a pretty high price and leaves very little “margin” for you to miss games. As we know, sometimes life gets busy, and you may have a work dinner, or someone’s birthday party to attend, and then have to miss a game or two. The most you can miss is 3 games, before it would be cheaper for you to just get the Crew membership. As for SISTIC, as mentioned above, this S$1 charge applies to tickets, even if you don’t use the SISTIC online portal. Tickets bought at the counter on matchday are also subject to this S$1 surcharge, Given that the financial incentive to sign up as a Season Pass holder is not the best, one difference I can think of is that Season Pass holders are assured a seat. They do not have to rush with the rest of the Crew members, or members of the public when seats are released. It’s not first-come-first-served basis for them, they get a guaranteed seat in the house. However, given that very few games sell out, this may or may not be something that features a lot in your thinking. How about sharing of Crew membership? Some ingenious ones among us have come up with the idea of sharing memberships. Since each Crew membership is allowed to purchase 5 tickets, how about we just share memberships, and buy tickets for each other? In theory, this is a brilliant idea. You still get discounted tickets, and you are still able to enjoy the merchandise discounts (just not as many vouchers for yourself since you are sharing with your friends). You and your friends can share a membership and still watch games together. Let me talk you through the down-side to ensure you are comfortable with this. Take note that Season Pass holders and Crew Members are registered individually. One Season Pass holder is one person – one Crew Member is also one person. On the website, you can see that part of being a Crew member is the privilege of receiving invites to “unique experiences that will bring you closer to the players and club that you love“. In the past few years in the teething stages of implementing the Crew membership, when it was cheaper (and for some, free), it was perhaps not easy for the club to receive a clear signal that the Crew members were fully onboard and passionate about the club. With the Crew membership being priced at S$48 now, you can be sure only true fans will sign up. True fans who intend on watching as many games as they can, who will check the scores of LCS matches even if they’re overseas, etc. This is the group of fans that surely the club will want to “reward” with the unique experiences. From previous years’ experience, the club has organised exclusive events for the bigger fans, such as player meet-and-greets, friendly games with other fans and staff, watch-along sessions in a booked-out theatre when the team was playing in the Champions League in Buriram, merchandise launch

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Kodai Tanaka – Massive Upgrade?

3 Comments / Daily Musings, Player Profiles, Transfers / Eddy Hirono

So it’s been confirmed. After weeks of rumours, the club announced that Christmas did bring us the marquee signing we had been hoping for – Kodai Tanaka, Albirex top-scorer, and reigning SPL Player of the Year. I don’t think you need stats to tell you how good a signing this could be for the Sailors, but for those who didn’t watch him much this season, I hope this article will help you find out what you can expect from him next season. Positions played If you just looked at the number of goals he scored, you would be convinced that Kodai was a pure striker. 33 goals in the league, and a further 6 in the Singapore Cup, from 33 games – that is some tally. But he’s not just a pure striker. For those who watched Albirex games, he was quite often deployed on the left wing, so that either Ilhan Fandi or Tadanari Lee could play as the central striker. You will see that he spent about 41% of the time starting on the left wing. This versatility may be good for us moving forward. Imagine him and Song interchanging positions between central striker and left wing, or between central striker and false 9 – a truly tantalising prospect. Shooting Now we take a look at his shooting statistics – perhaps the most important for strikers. 39 goals from 33 games (in all competitions) takes him to a very impressive average of 1.18 goals per game. This is more than league top-scorer Boris Kopitovic, who had 41 goals in 36 games (in all competitions), and thus clocks in an average of 1.14 goals per game. Encouragingly for the Sailors, it is almost double the 0.63 goals per game contributed by Kim Shin-Wook. When we take a deeper look at the statistics, you will also see that only 3 of his goals are penalties, whereas Boris scored 8 from the spot (including 1 miss). It gets better when you see that he has got 39 goals from an xG of 26. He has comfortably outperformed his xG, and we Sailors fans will be hoping this is not a one-off. If you look at Shin-Wook’s xG of 28, and his total goal tally of 22, it somewhat confirms the eye-test that our top-scorer this season should perhaps have scored more goals. He did miss some sitters this season, none more memorable than the one against the Young Lions. Given that LCS created the most chances this season in the league, the hope is that the addition of Kodai Tanaka will lead to more goals. Take a look at his shot map below, and Sailors fans, I implore you to imagine what a “fox-in-the-box” like Kodai will do with the service from Maxime, Diego, Hami and Shawal. Assists and Chance Creation If you look at the chart below, you will see that Kodai is going to be much more involved in team play than Shin-Wook was. Perhaps the statistics may be slightly skewed by the fact that Kodai played left-wing quite a bit, but his total of 10 assists is pretty tasty considering he already has 39 goals. This shows that he is not just a one-dimensional striker. He also compares favourably to Shin-Wook and Boris when it comes to his passing figures – in fact he makes quite a lot more key passes compared to both of them. Without the use of stats, I think Sailors fans will also feel that the addition of someone more mobile to our frontline may suit us more. Throughout the season, there have always been complaints about Shin-Wook’s lack of mobility. Many Sailors fans have also wondered what it would be like if Song was used up top more than Shin-Wook – given that Song was the spearhead of our attack when we famously beat Daegu FC in our maiden AFC Champions League campaign. Perhaps now we will get to see what this looks like for us. Teamwork/Pressing In the modern game, pressing/defending usually starts from the front, and looking at these stats, it is pretty encouraging to see that Kodai pretty much outstrips both Boris and Shin-Wook when it comes to ball recoveries – especially the “ball recoveries in opponent’s half” stat. There is no better place to win the ball than in your opponent’s half. He also puts in the tackles and goes into many aerial challenges, and that is exactly what fans want to see. Hopefully this increased mobility and pressing from the front will lead to even more chances for the Sailors next season. Conclusion I don’t think I need to elaborate much after showing you all the statistics – Kodai looks like he will be a brilliant signing. There’s something also to be said about his resilience, because he played every league game. If he stays fit, this will be a top, top signing. The other side of the coin of course, is that Albirex also lose their top-scorer. Given that they also lose Ilhan Fandi for next year, Albirex must hope that they manage to find someone just as dynamic as Kodai for next season (sadly I wouldn’t bet against them unearthing another gem from Japan). They surely cannot pin all their hopes on the ageing Tadanari Lee. Not only have we strengthened our ranks – we have weakened our title rivals. To end off, I will just comment on this IG Stories post by Zia-Ul Raushan, who likens Kodai’s arrival to that of Robin van Persie leaving Arsenal for Manchester United, and propelling them to the title all those years ago. This echos Kodai’s comments in his first interview for us, where he said that he wants to be league champion with LCS, and also win the Golden Boot. I think I speak for all Sailors fans when I say, I hope Raushan and Kodai are both right! WELCOME KODAI! はじめまして! (Written by Eddy, with stats taken from football.instatscout.com) Photo taken from lioncitysailorsfc.sg

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Rusyaidi is a Sailor – More Fight, More Bite?

1 Comment / Daily Musings, Player Profiles, Transfers / Eddy Hirono

Earlier this week, we announced the signing of Tanjong Pagar United midfielder Rusyaidi Salime. Like the rest of our signings, this one has been rumoured for very long. What does he bring to our midfield? His comments upon joining us have been very positive – “I won’t back out of any challenges and you can expect me to be a tough yet fair player on the pitch. I will try my best to win every challenge as I possibly can and to stop my team from conceding goals,” “I’m someone who always gives my 100% for the team. I will work hard for the club, the fans and my teammates – let’s win something together in the season ahead.” Sounds like the kind of player fans will get behind – do the stats bear that out for him? Hunger and Bite Recalling a conversation I had with LCS staff about a month back, they mentioned that the club was going to get hungrier, leaner, meaner players. I think nobody fits this profile more than Rusyaidi Salime. Let’s take a look at the stats. Right off the bat, you can see that for two years running, Rusyaidi has been in a lot of foul trouble. 7 yellow cards last season is the second-highest, while his 8 yellow cards in the 2021 season ranked him top of the pile. Considering 2021 was a short season where he made 18 appearances, the yellow-card tally may be a bit worrying. A little too much bite? Perhaps the way Tanjong Pagar play factors into that as well – given that 5 of the top 10 yellow card recipients are their players. What is encouraging is that there seems to be some improvement from 2021 to 2022. If you look at the stats below (which include his appearances in the SG Cup), you will see that he was involved in more challenges and attempted more tackles this year compared to last. However, he has only got 1 more yellow card, and conceded fewer fouls (29 to 36), perhaps showing that he is beginning to pick his tackles abit better. Goal Threat Of course, given that the Sailors are also a team that expect to play attacking football and dominate most games we are involved in, passing and attacking stats are worth looking at. Does Rusyaidi pose a goal threat? The simple answer is “No”. He has scored just once in his last 2 seasons. Last season he had an xG of 0.79 and he scored 1 goal, a smart sliding finish in the box against Tampines Rovers (watch at 49 seconds). I’ll give you some food for thought though. Despite not scoring with his long shots, in the past 2 seasons, on occasion, set piece experts such as Raihan Rahman and Luiz Junior have allowed him to take direct free kicks at goal. Perhaps he cracks them in during training and we SPL fans have just not been lucky enough to see his hidden talent? That may be the eternal optimist in me speaking – there’s so far not been any evidence to suggest that goalscoring is one of his abilities. He certainly doesn’t lack confidence though, and on occasion, he cuts in to his weaker foot to strike them from range – so far, none of these have been goals, or even shots that trouble the keeper. Passing Let’s start by getting the obvious out of the way. Rusyaidi is no Shahdan Sulaiman – but who is? That is just an unfair expectation to place on our new signing. Shahdan is one of Singapore’s greatest midfielders and who continues to dominate games even at his age. Shahdan’s passing percentage from last season was a whopping 88%, and he attempted an average of 49 passes per game in the league (double of Rusyaidi’s 24 passes per game). Rusyaidi is not a like-for-like replacement for Shahdan. However, for a guy who is known more as a destroyer, or a box-to-box midfielder, Rusyaidi’s 79% passing accuracy is decent. He has also played 16 key passes, which compares similarly to Shahdan’s 18 key passes in 2022. All-Action Midfielder? I wish InStat gave me information on distance covered by players. I’d imagine that Rusyaidi would score quite highly on that. The eye test tells me that he’s an all-action midfielder and he’s everywhere on the pitch. If we take a look at the heat map data for him, and compare it to that of Shahdan Sulaiman, it’s interesting to note that they both have a bias towards the right-hand side of the pitch. Also, you can clearly see that Rusyaidi is involved a lot more in deeper positions on the pitch – whether this is something that he can adapt to when he joins a more attacking Sailors side, that remains to be seen. Conclusion I think Rusyaidi is an exciting signing. From the eye-test, he is an all-action midfielder who likes to get involved in all areas of the pitch. Tanjong Pagar United was a team that did not dominate the ball as much as the Sailors did last season, and as such, was a team that spent a lot of time on the counter-attack, or defending counter-attacks. Last season, one of the Sailors’ weaknesses I felt was in stopping counter-attacks early, and I feel that Rusyaidi’s bravery in diving into tackles, coupled with what seems to be an improvement in choosing the right moments to tackle, may reap some rewards for the Sailors this year. He has a tendency to really snap into challenges once the opponent has miscontrolled the ball a little – give him a slight opening, and the ball is gone, the attack is snuffed out. That’s what we hope he can bring to us next year. His passing percentage, while not astounding, is decent enough. If he can get the ball to our more dominant ball-players such as Diego Lopes or Hami Syahin, we should still be fine in the attacking department. To end off,

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Superman, Out

Leave a Comment / Daily Musings, Player Profiles, Transfers / Eddy Hirono

What has been rumoured for a month or so now has finally been confirmed by Albirex Niigata (S) – Hassan Sunny has joined the reigning champions. We had confirmation a few weeks back that he would not be retained, along with Shahdan, Gabriel, Naqi, Iqram, and Faris. Then the rumour mill started churning and there was news that he would be joining Albirex. You could tell there was probably some bad blood, as not only did Hassan not show up at all for the Dortmund game, which would have allowed us a chance to say our final goodbye to him, he tweeted this on 25 Nov 2022. It is not the most subtle, but in case you’ve not had your morning coffee yet, it says “The ship has sunk”. We now know of course, that he was perhaps referring to the wide-ranging cuts that were about to happen across all levels in the club, both in the playing and non-playing staff. I wrote about it sometime back too, and expressed my opinion that far from it being a “strategic reset”, it was probably just cost-cutting measures. You can check it out here. But let’s stick to the football chat and take a conscious step away from our off-the-field troubles. What does this transfer bring to Albirex, our closest rivals from last year? And does it weaken us alot? Takahiro Koga v Hassan Sunny Age – Koga is 24 next year while Hassan will be 39. For an outfield player, 39 might be a problem, but as we’ve seen with Hassan over the years, he just seems to get better with age. I remember during his Home United days, the other players would tell me stories about how Hassan is very professional and always looks after himself – sleeping early, waking up early to get some stretching in, and sometimes even dragging the other boys along with him to do that when on overseas trips. This of course meant that they would have to give up any night activities because Hassan would call them up at 6am or so to drag them out to stretch. Given his professionalism, age truly is just a number for him, and he still pulled off plenty of improbable saves last season. In fact, one might say that Hassan’s age works in his favour in that he is more experienced than Koga, who does have an error in him sometimes, especially due to his position during offensive phases (more on this later). Statistics – Comparing the two when it comes to percentage of shots saved, Hassan comes out ahead, at 68%, compared to Koga’s 64%. This stat is all the more impressive considering that Hassan’s stats include our AFC Champions League campaign where we played against much better opposition as compared to our SPL teams. Another stat that jumps out at me is the number of “supersaves” that are made by the respective keepers. Hassan’s 1.19 supersaves a game is considerably more than Koga’s 0.76. Of course, what is defined as a supersave is subjective and depends on how Instat classifies them – but I think just based on the eye-test, we Sailors fans can remember numerous difficult saves that Hassan was required to make last year. He more than deserves to be called Superman. Playing style – The last comparison is playing style. I think from what we’ve seen so far, Hassan is more than an adequate replacement for Koga. I think that he will be an upgrade on Koga. But how will he slot in to the Albirex style of play? I think one thing to note is that Koga leaves his line way more often to claim the ball than Hassan. If you look at the stats comparison above, you will see that Hassan averages 1.09 GK exits a game, while Koga averages 1.79 GK exits a game. The eye-test confirms this as well. Hassan rarely leaves his line. Another thing to compare is the ball touches map below. You can clearly see that Koga is a more “adventurous” keeper – for better or for worse. Fans of the SPL will know that Koga has been caught in no-man’s land on more than a few occasions in the past two seasons, which have led to embarrassing goals or moments. High-risk, high-reward I suppose – sometimes coming out to claim the ball can relieve the pressure on your defence and stop potentially dangerous situations. Conclusion What does this mean for Albirex and for Hassan? Well of course this comparison is not conclusive, but I think Hassan may need to adapt a little to the Albirex playstyle. He will be expected to shuffle more across the box to pick up passes from his defenders, and then play the ball out. His defenders may also need to adapt to a keeper who doesn’t come out as much. Overall though, there is no doubting that Hassan will be a good signing for Albirex. I don’t think there is a significant gulf between the quality of Koga and Hassan, despite Koga’s inconsistency this season, but where the impact may be felt more keenly is that it clearly weakens the Sailors. The drop-off from Hassan to whoever is going to replace him is going to be a large one, especially because Izwan is out with an ACL injury. We will do a statistical comparison when the replacement is announced (rumoured to be Zharfan Rohaizad), but I think the national team pecking order tells its own story – Hassan is far and away the best goalkeeper in our land. TL;DR – Hassan to Albirex will strengthen them slightly, but will weaken the Sailors by a lot. Sad. (Written by Eddy, with stats taken from football.instatscout.com)

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Blue Is the Colour

2 Comments / Daily Musings / Eddy Hirono

If you’re reading this, you probably already can guess what I am sad about. Developments in recent days involving the Sailors have really left me scratching my head and wondering – what is the direction for our Sailors moving forward, and why has all this change happened? If you need some context, perhaps read this article in the Straits Times (https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/football-stars-key-backroom-staff-depart-lion-city-sailors). Fan favourites Faris Ramli, Gabriel Quak, Hassan Sunny, and Shahdan Sulaiman were among 6 players confirmed to be released, along with Iqram Rifqi and Naqiuddin Eunos. Of course, the Straits Times perhaps chose to focus on the four bigger names because they are some of the “highest-paid local footballers” – implying that the motivation for these decisions was mostly financial. But was it? Cost-cutting? Or something more? So the Straits Times subtly implies that it has to do with costs. This is a natural inference, given that SEA and Shopee have been laying off staff, pulling out of markets, and having their financial woes reported all over for large parts of this year. In fact, we tried our best to see for ourselves what the situation was like, when we wrote an article and released a podcast (https://sailorfantalk.com/2022/11/19/should-fans-be-worried-about-forrest-li-sea-losing-money/). We tried to remain optimistic back then – and perhaps that was the responsible thing to do, especially when we didn’t have any evidence to speculate the worst. But the worst has materialised. Besides the players being released, a significant number of backroom staff have been released as well. This was the saddest part of it all for me, but more on that later. The statement put out by LCS (https://www.lioncitysailorsfc.sg/sailors-ceo-chun-liang-a-rollercoaster-2022-but-smooth-seas-never-made-a-skilled-sailor/) suggests that this is a “strategic reset”, and no mention is made about cost-cutting. In fact, more mention was made about how the failures this year have led to the club taking drastic action. A few players I can understand, but backroom staff at all levels? Besides those mentioned in the article, I know of several other staff who were let go, or voluntarily left. If you talk about the need for a reset, why is there a need for Logistics staff to go? I can’t really think of a reason for needing to change things around in the Logistics department. Is there even a need for a reset? And then we look at whether there is even a need for a reset – or such a drastic one. This is a team of playing staff and backroom staff who not just won the title last season, but also performed pretty well in the AFC Champions League barely months ago. On the pitch, the players did not look out of place alongside Daegu FC’s players. We beat them once 3-0, and then in the second game, lost it in pretty extraordinary circumstances. When we came back, we also managed to avoid the pitfalls that Tampines Rovers went through last year. The team’s physical workload seemed to have been well-managed, and they did not look fatigued when they returned to league action. This was a major problem for Tampines last year as they really struggled when they returned from their Champions League campaign, so I was glad that it was not repeated in LCS. In fact, we went into the final months of the season with a good lead over Albirex Niigata (S). We will dedicate a whole article and video to our speculation as to why we did not win the title, but suffice to say, it seemed that for a long time this season, the playing and non-playing staff seemed to have functioned at a pretty high standard. To cut almost all of them seems pretty drastic. And of course, I think I might be ignoring the elephant in the room here. It seems pretty apparent to me (and many fans) that in this “reset”, it seems that one of the key elements of our failure last season, was how quickly things went to shit after Coach Kim was sacked and Coach Luka took over. I am not blaming him entirely for it – I do think the players have to take some responsibility for this as well, but how come it seems there are no consequences for him? Who was let go? Many people were let go, but let’s focus on a few of them. Take Firdaus Massar and Mario Jovanovic. These are coaches who have worked with world-class stars – Firdaus with EPL clubs like Liverpool and Wolves, and Jovanovic who was Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Croatian national youth teams. When they came in, Firdaus said – “The Sailors are currently working to put in place a well-structured sports science department, and have improved their backend and technical capabilities immensely, which is a clear sign that they are serious about becoming one of the best teams in the region.” Now that you cut both, what gives? What happens to this “well-structured sports science department”? Are we promoting staff from the academy? And if you do that, are they qualified enough to do the job? Even if they are, then what happens to our much-vaunted academy? Are they double-hatting? So many questions, so few answers. The “Staff” section on the Sailors website has also seemingly been removed. Then our physios. With Kak Fizah gone, will there be a full-time physio taking charge of the players, or are we moving back to the system in the past where we had team doctors who did not work on the premises full-time? If she is replaced, will it be someone of a similar stature? Is there someone in the local scene of a similar stature and with the depth of experience dealing with professional footballers as she does? And I haven’t even discussed those who voluntarily left. Although some did move on to better opportunities, I wonder if this is all a coincidence, and if it is a symptom of something happening internally that we fans should be worrying about. What it means to support a club When

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Fun Day Out at LCS Training Centre + Dortmund Preview

Leave a Comment / Daily Musings, Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

It was a fun day out for the boys of SailorFanTalk today, as all three of us headed down bright and early to LCS Training Centre to play in the BVB Fan Club v The Crew friendly game. Fun fact, Ethan (one of SailorFanTalk’s own) is also a huge BVB supporter and so he played for BVB Fan Club. The Crew 2 – 1 BVB Fan Club Despite being outnumbered by the BVB fans, after some negotiation, it was agreed that 4 of the newer BVB fans would don Sailors shirts and play for us. This of course caused quite a bit of unfamiliarity for us and we started the match tentatively. However, we managed to slowly gain a foothold in the game, and went into half-time with a 2-1 lead. BVB fans clearly took the game very seriously, judging by the number of sliding tackles I saw from their players. It was a friendly, but it was clear that BVB were trying their best to win it. After half-time, BVB sent out their “death squad”, putting together their best team in a bid to come back into the game, but by then we had gelled with our new friends and gradually grew into the game. In the end, we managed to see the game out courtesy of some good defending and good goalkeeping, and there were handshakes and smiles all around. We made some new friends, and I made it a point to take a picture with 10 year old Thabo, who is definitely one to watch. He’s a young Ousmane Dembele, and I had to concentrate really hard to make sure he didn’t get the better of me. And he’s 10! Apparently he’s one of the top-scorers in the Puma Youth Champions League, so yeah Thabo if you ever become famous please remember that I played against you one rainy morning in 2022! It was all fun and games, but the morning ended on a sour note as our very own Joseph twisted his knee chasing an opponent, and had to receive treatment from the ambulance crew. We wish Joseph a speedy recovery! Meet-and-Greet with Sailors and Dortmund Players After the friendly game, we washed up and went on to the meet-and-greet. Sailors’ representatives were captain Hariss Harun, and Gabriel Quak. For BVB, they sent Julian Rijkhoff and Antonios Papadopoulos – I must be very honest and say I had never in my life heard of them. I have since done some checking and it seems Rijkhoff has not made a senior appearance yet, while Papadopoulos has had a few cameos. Through the interviews, they did seem like pretty approachable and humble people – people committed to making it in the Bundesliga. I wish them the best in their careers. However, the highlight of the meet-and-greet for me at least was the chance to see Hariss and Gab, especially Hariss before he flies off soon to national team training ahead of the AFF ME Cup. When asked about the team’s chances, he let on that the team was looking to at least repeat what was achieved last edition – a semi-final position, or even better. He also agreed with the comment made by the moderator that Jalan Besar Stadium is a unique venue because of how intimate it is with the supporters being so close to the action, especially when both sides are sold out. After a few more questions that were unremarkable, it was time for photo-taking and autograph-signing. Once again, smiles all around. Preview to Dortmund game Obviously, given that this is a friendly game, the result isn’t really gonna matter. However, I feel that with the gloomy end to the season and all the uncertainty surrounding whether our players will be extended, I really hope that we put up a respectable showing. I am confident we will get this. I think it’s also good that our Sailors get to say a proper goodbye to us. So far, we know that Faris Ramli is gone, because of his Instastory that announced it was his last day at the LCS Training Centre a few days back. The official website has also confirmed that Shahdan Sulaiman is gone (https://www.lioncitysailorsfc.sg/friendly-only-in-name-sailors-vow-to-be-competitive-against-bvb/), and he isn’t the only one. Here’s the relevant quote – With this being the final match for some in the Sailors class of 2022, Hafiz expressed a tinge of sadness. “We know that there will be departures within the ranks, including experienced players like Shahdan (Sulaiman) whom I’ve played with since I was 12,” he said. “We have many memories together and unfortunately, some of them won’t be with us for the new season. It’s going to be emotional for sure, but it is a day that we will remember and hopefully we can end it off with a bang.” Rumours have been floating around of us losing players like Gabriel Quak, Hassan Sunny, Izwan Mahbud, Amirul Adli, etc, and I guess my hope is that it’s not a complete clear-out because it will certainly take a while before we can get used to supporting new players, chanting new names etc. We will also miss the memories we shared with these players, many of whom were part of the title-winning squad last season. It will perhaps be interesting to see which players say prolonged goodbyes to the fans, which are usually indicative of them having played their last game for the club. I’ll try to enjoy the game tomorrow, and then deal with the sadness later. For those of you heading down tomorrow, see you for the final Post-Match Interview of the season! Come up and say hi please, don’t be a stranger!

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Happy for the Hools – What lessons the Crew can learn from them

8 Comments / Daily Musings / Eddy Hirono

These are just my opinions – if you feel offended reading any of the below paragraphs, just reach out to me and I’ll see if I can clear some stuff up. – Eddy What a great Cup final it was yesterday. Great game of football, with two great sets of supporters in the stands (plus many neutrals), and a trophy at the end of it. This was cup football at its finest. Why a Sailors fan was slightly leaning towards Hougang for the win I won’t lie – even as a Sailors fan, I was supporting Hougang this final. Lesser of the two evils, I guess. And also, I think my long friendship with the Hools made me happy for them to see them finally get rewarded for their years and years of supporting the club. And who doesn’t love an underdog story! Everyone and their mother (and Singapore Pools) was predicting a Tampines win. I also don’t really like Tampines Rovers, but my reasons for that shall stay private. I will share with you in person if you’re really curious. Before this turns into a whole post discussing why I do not like Tampines Rovers, I must turn the focus of this post back to the Hools. Perseverance and Passion When it comes to local football supporter groups, I don’t think there is any debate. The Hools and the Ultras Eagles (fans of Geylang International) are the two loudest and most organised fan groups currently. They are very passionate, and they’ve been around for a long time. I have nothing but respect for their dedication and I hope that one day, the Crew will be able to come close to the Hools in terms of their organised support. One Hool I am particularly close to is Merv. He may be a controversial figure (lots of people like to talk shit about him) but I will forever defend him because I know his passion for the club and for Singapore football is real. He also composed one (or maybe more) of the songs that the Hools use, “Satu Hati Satu Hougang”. It’s a song that’s so catchy I hate Merv for composing it because I sometimes find myself humming along to it and I hate myself for it haha. In my many conversations with him over the years, he’s been nothing but welcoming, and I appreciate that we can have this friendly rivalry in the stands, and come together to cheer whenever our national team plays. I think the take-aways from my conversations with him are that it takes time and patience to build such a strong supporter culture, and that the spirit is all-important. Once the spirit is right (the “semangat” that Merv always lovingly refers to), and there is a connection between the club, the players, and the fans, then good things can be achieved. The co-ordination of the Hools’ chants, and their togetherness is not by accident. It’s hard work and painstaking growth that has taken place since 2010/2011. It’s more than a decade in the making. But of course, followers of local football will know that week in week out, the Hools chant and chant but the club has not achieved anything of note in their history. Until last night, that is. I texted Merv to congratulate him first, and then the other Hools I knew as well. Shoutout to Alvin, Michael, Amsyar and many many others. Gutted that Sailors are not in the final, but so happy that these long-suffering fans have some reward at the end of a long period of pain. “Plastics” The Crew is often referred to as being plastic fans, or glory-hunters. This is of course, an unfair tag, given that a large number of the Crew have actually started off as Home United fans who stuck with the club despite the rebranding and privatisation. Even if they are new fans, I am not sure that we really need to attach such negative labels to Singaporeans who bother coming to a game. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, I feel. People laud LCS for their marketing efforts – the pyrotechnics, the increased social media presence, the merchandising, and all that, but surely the point of all this is to attract new fans. But when the new fans turn up, they are labelled as “plastics” – what gives? Must we shame our fellow Singaporeans who decide to attend our games because there is now a much better matchday experience? (erhem, aside to certain club’s Chairman who calls us plastic at every opportunity and somehow found it appropriate to sneak this same reference in into his obituary to the late FAS President Lim Kia Tong) No. Let’s welcome these new fans, to whatever club they want to support. Be it Geylang or Hougang or Albirex or Tampines, why are we giving labels to people? Surely whether or not they are plastic depends on whether they will stick with their club through thick and thin. LCS imploded spectacularly this year, so let’s see whether the Crew sticks around next year, or if everyone just gives up. I know where I’ll still be next year, and the years after that. Let’s support each other There’s a reason I am bringing this up now. I was so encouraged that the brilliant cup final last night sparked so much interest. Tampines and Hougang both played a part in ensuring that at the end of the night, local football was the winner. The goals were of a very good quality, and both teams played positive, flowing football. The action even sparked a Reddit thread in r/Singapore that is doing quite well. Do check it out here (https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/yzz59p/why_you_should_watch_local_football_its_actually/). Clearly the writer of that post is super passionate about local football, so much so that he’s decided to write a whole post about it to encourage his fellow Singaporeans to come down to a game. Now, I call upon all of us, Sailors fans included, let’s welcome

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Should Fans be Worried about Forrest Li / SEA Losing Money?

1 Comment / Daily Musings / Eddy Hirono

You’ve seen the news. Sensational headlines about how Forrest Li’s wealth has crashed, and how he’s only worth US$4.7 billion now, as opposed to US$22 billion sometime back when SEA shares were worth a ton. (Only US$4.7 billion huh! How I wish I was worth even US$4.7 million haha) For the longest time, these news, plus rumours and confirmed statements of SEA/Shopee employees being let go made me wonder – should we as LCS fans be worried? Will there be cost-cutting measures that will result in our players and non-playing staff leaving? I tried to do some research myself. I downloaded the Corporate Compliance and Financial Profile of Lion City Sailors Private Limited off ACRA, and tried to take a look at the financials to see what they could tell me. Well, ok that didn’t tell me anything much. First thing I noticed is this profile was perhaps purchased too early – 2022 hasn’t ended, so I cannot see the financial data for this year, which is when most of the drama happened at SEA. But what could I make of the rest of the stats? Some initial thoughts – if you zoom in on revenue, you will see that for 2020, we had S$3 million revenue, and the next year, we had S$13.6 million revenue. LCS is a private limited company so they do not need to disclose exactly to the public where they get their revenue from. But even from a rough estimate, you sense that academy fees, merchandise sales and ticket sales are not gonna give us S$13.6 million. You can do some quick math if you’d like – but let’s take ticket sales. If you take an optimistic figure of 4000 tickets sold every game (the truth is far from this), then you’re still not cracking a million dollars if you take the figure and multiply it over 14 home games last season. And how did our revenue increase from 3 million to 13.6 million over one year? Surely the re-opening of stadiums after COVID had some impact, but this was way too much. It is more likely than not that this is an injection from Garena Ventures Private Limited, which is the sole shareholder of LCS. Note also that Garena Ventures is a subsidiary of SEA Limited. This part may get confusing – I’ll address this later. Anyway, the point is – there is nothing much conclusive I could see from the financial reports. So I knew I had to call in someone who knew way more about this than myself. Enter Anthony, childhood friend of mine I’ve known since I was 7. Nowadays he is one of the hosts on a local financial podcast called The Financial Coconut, and I thought, hey, let’s get him to talk about the financial situation at SEA/Shopee/LCS and whether or not I should be worried. Conclusion Long story short – we shouldn’t be worried because from LCS’s statements, it looks like we’re spending 8 figure-sums max, tens of millions. That’s a fraction of Forrest Li’s net worth – that is also a fraction of the figures we’re talking about when it comes to SEA. Anthony and I go into a deep dive in our podcast episode, and we even talk about how LCS could go about signing Cristiano Ronaldo if we needed to (haha). Do check it out! Click here – https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Tx8WeEOeVgvfdGVV28Gf3?si=6d8b3ed9491c4955 Oh, and may the best team win in the Singapore Cup final later!

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