Match Previews

Having passed up a golden opportunity to return to the top of the table, our Sailors go into tonight’s game knowing it’s pretty much do-or-die. Let’s take a quick look at the permutations for us. If Sailors win – we will be 1 point ahead of Albirex, but they will have 1 game in hand. If Sailors draw – we will be 2 points behind Albirex, AND they will have 1 game in hand. If Sailors lose – we will be 5 points behind Albirex, AND they will have 1 game in hand. As you can see, even a win doesn’t leave our title hopes in our own hands, as we will still need other teams to take points off Albirex. But it’s all we can try to do tonight – so let’s get right into the preview. Seia Kunori’s fitness and availability To say Seia Kunori is an important part of the Albirex lineup is a bit of an understatement. He tops Albirex’s goalscoring charts, while also is in the top 2 for assists. While there’s been no news about him being unfit or injured, I do raise this question because of how much he has played in his last 2 games. He did not start against Young Lions, and I assumed it was just rotation, because he came on at half-time to play the second half. It looked like just load management, letting him share minutes with the likes of Riku Fukashiro. However, in the game after that, he did not start against Brunei DPMM either, and despite Albirex desperately needing a goal to win the game, he was only subbed on in the 84th minute. Unless he’s had some falling-out with the coach, I cannot see past the possibility that he might be carrying some sort of injury, which has limited his minutes in the past 2 games. Of course, it’s been a week since Albirex last played, so if it’s a small knock, he may well be in contention to start against us tomorrow. If however he doesn’t start, it will be a massive boon for us, and will make things slightly easier for our defence. Hassan Sunny Returns Hassan Sunny’s red card against Tampines Rovers landed him a 2-match suspension, but as luck would have it, he comes back against us. On a side-note, Syazwan Buhari’s red card for Tampines in last night’s game against Young Lions also means that he lands himself a 2-match suspension. Once again, as luck would have it, he is suspended for the Geylang and Albirex games, but will be back against us. Jared Gallagher also picked up his 4th yellow card, which means he is suspended for the Albirex game. Life. At this stage of the season where every win is important, we are looking for any little advantage that we can get, and make no mistake about it, despite Kai Yamamoto’s excellent performances while Hassan was out, Hassan is still the best keeper in the country, and his experience and know-how will be crucial to how Albirex approach this game. He will, of course, be fired up to perform against us given that he was let go by the club last year, and his side are in pole position to win the title. Some people have asked why the Sailors fans in the two Albirex fixtures this year have been so hostile towards Hassan Sunny. Let’s not sugar-coat the truth – some fans did very audibly shout the word “traitor” at Hassan Sunny, while others resorted to the usual vulgarities on him. I do not think this is acceptable conduct, because I feel that the term “traitor” is a bit too harsh. However, for reasons that I will elaborate on below, there is some reason for Sailors fans to be a little disappointed in the conduct of Hassan Sunny. So let me reluctantly take a walk down memory lane to try to set the record straight. Not a lot of people will read this, but Sailors fans will at least know why there is some ill feeling. In totality, this is why I was OK with some of our fans booing him. There will be those who don’t believe me and say that we are booing just because he joined our rivals. Or they told me that LCS fans booed because Hassan Sunny celebrated Albirex scoring against us. For that, I will just ask them – did you see anyone booing Faris Ramli who joined Tampines, a team where we have had fiery encounters in the last few years and are also a title rival? No. Did we boo Faris when he scored that banger against LCS, denting our title hopes? No. And the reason is simple. Faris left with class, as did Gabriel. When interviewed by the Straits Times, he didn’t moan about LCS not offering a contract, he just accepted it and moved on. Same with Gabriel, who in fact wrote a very nice farewell message. At the Dortmund game, they stayed, and applauded the fans. The fans got to say a proper goodbye. They still talk to us fans, even now. There was no such closure or continuing relationship with Hassan, and so I can understand the way some fans felt. I reiterate that calling him “traitor” is harsh. He’s not Judas, he is just like the colleague who after tendering his resignation, starts giving less effort, starts chaokenging MCs, evading obligations, and just generally leaving in a sour way. But “traitor” is still harsh. We would have preferred if he moved on without fuss and didn’t badmouth the club, but “traitor” is a whole new level. He’d have to be leaking team lineups for example (rumour has it another ex-Sailor did that, but no proof so shhh). On my part, I have urged fans to move on from this, and try to focus our efforts on cheering on the Sailors, and not to shit on people who are no longer part of our

In case you are wondering why nuggets is the picture accompanying this article, it’s because it’s past midnight, I am hungry, and after I typed “golden” in the title, I thought of nuggets. We head into this game with the unexpected bonus of knowing that Albirex dropped points and so our destiny is fully in our hands. Of course when I say that, I mean we must win all our remaining 7 games – no easy task. But it’s better than having to win all remaining 7 games, AND hope that Albirex somehow drop points in another game. Fans of the SPL will know that the club that made Albirex drop points, are our opponents tonight. We must escape a similar fate. With that as our goal, let’s go through some thoughts I have pre-game. DPMM played the game like a cup final I watched the DPMM-Albirex game on TV, and I think it is a real credit to the league that even though DPMM don’t really have anything to play for, they played like their lives depended on the result of the match. They chased down every ball, and really made it a very physical battle. And they did it in a disciplined way too, only committing 9 fouls, as compared to Albirex’s 15. Of their 3 yellow cards, only 1 was for a foul to stop a counter-attack. The other 2 were awarded for time-wasting when DPMM tried to cling on to their hard-earned point. I say DPMM don’t have anything to play for, not just because of their league position. Unlike other teams where the local players are playing for contracts, the majority of the DPMM squad don’t have many other Bruneians who can step in and fight for their starting spot, due to their domestic league back home not being a competitive or even a fully professional one. On top of that, I am told quite reliably there is very little incentive for them to try and win a contract in an overseas team, because some of these players actually wear two hats. They are footballers, but they are also sort of on the books of the Bruneian public service. So when they retire, they will be given jobs as policemen, or civil servants. This job security is hard to leave, and it is a reason why you see very few Bruneian footballers seek greener pastures elsewhere. You’d think a player like Hakeme Yazid would have no lack of offers from overseas teams in the region, but perhaps this is one of the reasons why we are unlikely to see him leave the country. But yeah I digress – they really played like this was a cup final, and in the end it did us a huge favour. Squad Rotation? We come into this game with one more day of rest as compared to DPMM – and the fact that they ran themselves ragged against Albirex may benefit us. I predicted that against Young Lions, we would rotate a little, but Coach Ranko went with an unchanged lineup. I might be wrong again, but I would be very surprised if we do not rotate this time. Including the Albirex game this Sunday, we will have played 3 games in 9 days, and given we have one of the deepest squads in the league, I will expect some changes. Hafiz Nor The first change I think will be Hafiz Nor. I fully expect Zulqarnaen Suzliman to come in for him, and it is not just because we might want to preserve his legs for the Albirex game. Hafiz Nor is already on three yellow cards, and can ill afford to pick up another one vs DPMM. If you look at our build-up play when we have the ball, Hafiz Nor seems the most natural fit for the right-sided position because he holds the width excellently, and has been trusted so far by Coach Ranko. The above graphic is taken from Zach’s excellent tactical analysis of Coach Ranko’s preferred formation, and so far Hafiz Nor has been trusted on the right. However, I think there is no reason why Zulqarnaen Suzliman cannot do an excellent job there too. His engine allows him to get up and down the right side, and in fact, perhaps a surprising statistic is that Mamat has 1 more assist than Hafiz Nor. Hafiz Nor has no assists this season, although he does have 2 goals. When we last faced Albirex, Hafiz Nor also had a better game than Mamat, so I think we can expect Mamat to start tonight, to ensure that Hafiz Nor is available for the Albirex game. Bailey Wright Singapore football’s worst-kept secret was finally revealed over the weekend. Bailey Wright is a Sailor. It is a very exciting signing given that he has come directly from one of the most competitive leagues in Europe – the EFL Championship. He has also gained a reputation over the years as a hard-nosed defender who is a gentleman off it. It is absolutely amazing to see all the tributes pouring in for him from Sunderland and Socceroo fans. When Kim Shin-Wook signed for us, it was a huge signing, no doubt, but the online comments were a lot more divided. For more on Bailey Wright, please read this excellent article by the club. Back to the game – I think we will want Bailey Wright to start in the game against Albirex, and therefore I think we will need to play him against DPMM first. I think it would be foolhardy to throw a new signing into the defence immediately, even if Bailey has already been in Singapore for some time, and attended our last 2 games. From highlights it looks like Bailey is a no-nonsense defender who likes to dive into tackles and emerge with the ball. Games sometimes turn on moments, and I can already imagine some of his full-blooded tackles bringing life to the crowd, helping to keep

Complacency is the buzzword for this article, and for our match against Young Lions tomorrow. It’s featured in the title of our preview here, and also features heavily in the official Sailors preview (the word “complacency” is used thrice in its various forms). Sailors are Overwhelming Favourites There is good reason for the choice of the word “complacency” – Young Lions should not have any chance of winning this game. Coming into this game, here are some relevant stats : On top of the above, they have also lost key players such as Jordan Emaviwe, and Jacob Mahler, who have gone to Balestier Khalsa and Madura United respectively. Jared Gallagher may be back in contention to start the game as his training stint with Sligo Rovers should have ended on 3 July. His addition will be a welcome one to Young Lions as his defensive abilities should help in the middle of the park as they will undoubtedly try to sit in a deep block to frustrate the Sailors. There should thus be no excuse for our Sailors, provided we are not complacent, but let’s take a look at some factors to think about ahead of tomorrow’s game. Farhan Zulkifli Local fans have seen the fleet-footed left winger / wing-back for years now, and been entertained by his enterprising runs down the left flank, so much so that it is kinda surprising for me to learn that he is only 21 years old. It seems like he has been around forever. He made his debut 4 years ago, and has since gone on to be called up for national team squads and even made his debut last year. He made his debut for the Young Lions against Albirex a few days ago, and he was electric. In the half hour that he was subbed on, he never stopped running and gave Albirex a really tough time. He completed all 4 dribbles that he attempted, he won a penalty, and with better finishing, might even have got a goal for himself. He has pace to burn so Sailors fans can expect that between Syahadat Masnawi (another willing runner) and himself, they will be the ones running after long balls and clearances from their defenders to try to catch us on the counter-attack. One for the defence to worry about! Rotation This is a tricky question – should the Sailors try to rotate the squad a little? There are pros and cons to this approach. Given that Young Lions are the worst team in the league, the argument can be made that if not now, then when? We play Albirex on 16 July in a match that will definitely have a huge impact on the title race. In the month of July, we have three games before 16 July. In that same period, Albirex only have 2 games. Even then, Albirex saw fit to rotate against Young Lions. Seia Kunori (their top scorer) and Tadanari Lee did not start, while Kaisei Ogawa only played 45 minutes. The changes to the squad perhaps affected their performance on the day. While they still emerged as comfortable winners, I think many expected a more dominant performance, and perhaps a bigger scoreline. As it was, Young Lions managed to score 2 goals, and even contrived to miss a penalty kick. If we rotate, are we confident of still getting a good performance? If we have a bit of a disjointed performance, can we still come out of the game with 3 points? These are questions that Coach Ranko has to grapple with. My opinion is that we definitely have to rotate. Even if we do not leave out our established starters from the outset, I think we have to be more daring when it comes to mid-game substitutions. If we are 2 goals up at half-time for example, dare we leave out Maxime Lestienne for the second half? I think we should. Let’s see our fringe players get some free time. We’re entering the final straight of the league campaign, and if there are any injuries, we will want our fringe players to at least have some match practice under their belt so that we can rely on them. It would of course, be easier to rotate if our foreign signings are eligible to play – but for whatever reason, they have not been announced yet. Perhaps some work permit issues? Some other administrative issues that we are not privy to? It’s really hard to say. Whatever it is, it is clear that Super and Bernie seem to have been deregistered from our SPL squad, as they were both not in the matchday squad against Tanjong Pagar United. I hope that the new foreign signings get to play soon, and if we’re lucky, maybe they’ll make it off the bench for a cameo? Conclusion Just win. Some supporters have talked about using this game to pad the goal difference stats. While I can see their point – I think it is still a little disrespectful to the Young Lions. These are still professional footballers, who put in a very decent shift against reigning champions Albirex. What I want to see is a continuation of our dominance against Tanjong Pagar and Hougang – the scoreline will naturallly follow. As long as we are not complacent. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! Score Prediction Joseph and I predict the scores and track our success in a table. Stay tuned to find out who is the prediction king! 3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw). Eddy’s prediction: YL 0 LCS 6 Joseph’s prediction: YL 2 LCS 5 And here’s the leaderboard – Written by Eddy Hirono If you don’t want to miss any articles, be sure to follow us on Instagram and join our Telegram chat! If you’d like to support the work we do

The last time we faced Tanjong Pagar, we were a little lucky that Sugic missed a penalty when the score was 1-0 to us. That was in the 67th minute and came as a result of a sloppy 15, 20 minutes of play in the second half. We managed to win the game 3-1 in the end, with a late Kodai brace (sigh), but it certainly wasn’t as comfortable as it should have been. Tomorrow’s game should be much easier, and is a must-win for us. I know I say that a lot, but I expect a lot from our Sailors, and also it is a good time to play Tanjong Pagar – let me explain why. Shakir Hamzah’s Suspension Old Home Utd boy Shakir Hamzah is one of my favourite players. Play him at LB, CB, and he always does the job. He also has a penchant for scoring memorable goals, so that probably contributes to why he is such a popular player. Tanjong Pagar will miss him because he is the most commanding presence in their backline. Faizal Roslan, Shahrin Saberin and Raihan are no slouches of course, and Shakir’s suspension will see Raihan slot in at the back, but this absence should weaken their defence on paper at least. The impact of his absence goes beyond that – Shakir is also joint top-scorer for Tanjong Pagar, with 4 goals. The other player on 4 goals is Marin Mudrazija – more on him later. If you dig into the stats a bit more, and try to ascertain if his 4 goals are just a result of his wonderstrikes from range, or whether he is actually one of the players charged with attacking responsibility, you will see this. It is no surprise really that he is one of the players on TPU’s roster who has had the most shots (17). He is a good striker of the ball, and also has decent ability in the air. In case you are still not convinced of his importance to TPU’s attack – here’s a list of their top-assist makers. He has 2 assists, and Blake is their top assist-maker with 3 assists. If you think these are very low numbers, you’re right – which brings me to my next point. Toothless Jaguars Even with Shakir Hamzah in the team, TPU is a toothless team. They are 2nd-bottom when it comes to number of shots on target, beaten only by Young Lions. They also have the 3rd-worst defence – only Young Lions and Balestier Khalsa have conceded more goals. Interestingly enough, some may point out that the last time Shakir Hamzah was missing from the team, Tanjong Pagar actually won the game, a 3-2 victory against Geylang International. However, one big difference that day was that they had Khairul Amri, who picked up a goal and an assist. While there is no official news about whether Khairul Amri will be playing in this game, his Instagram posts and stories suggest that he is in Zambia. This diminishes their already-small goal threat. Marin Mudrazija, their foreign striker, has been disappointing to say the least, with 4 goals this season. Even TPU fans have started calling him Mudrazihaha – which is perhaps a little cruel, but understandable. His performances in front of goal have been far from convincing, and with 4 goals, he has not been troubling the goalscoring charts. He did top the charts in soomething else, though! Enough said. Impact of the New Coach It will be Coach Rankovic’s first game in charge officially, and I think we as fans can be excited about what is to come. Our tactical approach against Hougang was not something we’d seen before this season, and it really seemed to work for us as we dominated the game from start to finish. Control was something we’ve lacked all season, even in our victories, and if rumours are true that Coach Rankovic did have some input into our tactical set-up for the Hougang game, then I guess we will see more of the same toomorrow, and that is a good thing. He has said in his interview that he describes his philosophy as “very attacking”, and says that he likes his team to “dominate” and create a lot of chances. He has said all the right things, but I guess the proof is in the pudding, and we will see come the end of the next 10 matches if the pudding is a nice mango pudding topped with sweet mango flesh and some lemon drizzle, or a black pudding (sorry Brit readers). New Players? Another thing for us fans to consider is this – are there gonna be any new signings lining up for us tomorrow? I highly doubt it considering it’s Friday afternoon, and we have not heard any announcement from the club as to who is joining us. For those out of the loop, you may be wondering – wait, what signings? Please read this article from the Straits Times, where not 1, not 2, but 3 new signings were teased. How that is gonna work for our foreign player quota, I have no idea. Are some of the signings going to be kept just for our upcoming AFC Champions League campaign (where more foreign players can be registered)? The Straits Times article suggests that Super and Bernie may be deregistered. Which is kinda harsh on Super, but Bailey Wright’s experience I guess wins out. Super came in as Risto’s lieutenant and I did fear for his place when Risto left – but I think he has earned his place on merit, so I am a little sad. As for speculation as to who these players mentioned in the article may be, the Internet has done its homework, and while the identity of the Portuguese central midfielder remains a bit of a mystery, the other two players seem to be Richairo Zivkovic and Bailey Wright. Bailey Wright, in particular was spotted at Our Tampines

The last time we faced Hougang United, it was a predictable walk in the park. It was Kristian Krajcek’s first game back after an injury lay-off and he looked very rusty, Shahdan Sulaiman was injured, Brian Ferreira was playing, Irwan Shah was not playing in midfield, and the coach was Firdaus Kassim, who was enduring a torrid time. Prior to that game, they had lost 5 of their last 6 games, and the Sailors were flying high and looking good. Since Kraljevic took over at the helm, Hougang have played 6 games, and won 4 of them. They also scored 3 goals in each of those wins. Their only losses came not unexpectedly, to Albirex and Tampines. To say that there has been a marked improvement would be an understatement. Part of the revival can of course be credited to Krajcek’s sustained run in the team after his injury lay-off, but tactically, Kraljevic also did made a change by deploying Irwan Shah in midfield, which has led to Hougang looking a little more solid. Finally dropping Brian Ferreira has also proven to be beneficial to the team, as he was a clear passenger in most games that he played, allowing opponents to easily overrun the midfield, something that we pointed out in our preview before the last game. Ahead of the game tomorrow, here are some of our thoughts on what might be key to the outcome. The return of Shahdan Sulaiman Shahdan was always a popular figure to us fans, both for his exploits as a Sailor, and also as a national team player. His control of the ball in midfield and his technical quality was always a treat for the eyes, and when we found out that the Sailors were not renewing his contract, most of us felt sad and also wondered how we would maintain a dominance in midfield this season. Shahdan has passed his Beep test after a long injury lay-off, and is now fit for selection. If he is up to speed and is selected, then he should add even more control in the middle of the park for Hougang. There is of course also his quality from set pieces. Imagine a freekick outside the box, and on the ball are Zulfahmi Arifin and Shahdan Sulaiman. How would the keeper even position the wall, and which side would he “show” to the taker, considering that both of them hit a sweet dead ball? I shudder at the thought of such a situation even arising. Of course, Shahdan’s return to the team remains a theoretical possibility only, considering he may not be match-fit to start the game, and even if he does start, I would hope our midfield is able to take advantage of his lack of fitness and rust to reduce his impact on the game. The unknown quantity that is Djordje Maksimovic Hailing from the Serbian Superliga, he seemed to be used mostly as a substitute, starting 8 games over 2 seasons, scoring 2 goals and assisting none. Of course, there can be no meaningful comparison given that we are no experts on how the quality in the Serbian league compares with our SPL. We also have not watched him play yet so there is an element of unpredictability of what he can or cannot do. I spoke to a friend who told me that goalscoring is a skill that people either have or don’t have – and if you can’t score at least a few goals, chances are that even if the league is lousier, you still won’t be able to score. We then decided to dig up Sime Zuzul’s goal record before joining the SPL, and we chuckled. We’ll leave you to look at it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Risto’s sacking Will Risto’s sacking have any impact on the team? The last time we sacked a coach, it didn’t go too well, as we surrendered a lead at the top of the table and started conceding all manner of calamitous goals. The team was in OK form when Risto was sacked, and given that a new coach has not been announced yet, I don’t think there will be drastic changes to how we line up against Hougang. It would not make sense for a new philosophy to be taught to the team, and then a new coach comes in, and then seeks to impose his own philosophy on the team. I guess the only change is that hopefully Diego Lopes comes back into the team. The SPL website says he is back from injury, and the official club training highlights also shows Diego back in training. Interestingly, Izwan is also back in training, but I cannot imagine him slotting right back in after so long out with injury. Will Super’s gametime be affected? I think it was pretty well-known that Super was “Coach Risto’s man”, someone he coached and really trusted at both Real Betis B, and later, Ceres Negros in the Philippines. I think he has earnt his gametime on merit, but it will be interesting to see if the current staff in the club concur with my opinion on his ability. Other than the above, I think our team pretty much will remain the same, with the focus very much on Diego, Maxime, and Shawal. The trio of them have been in great form and on paper, Hougang should be more worried about our attack, than we will be about theirs. But I am a bit of a pessimist sometimes (Arsenal fan upbringing), so there is just this nagging feeling that all the unpredictability and unknown factors will play a part in the Sailors dropping points. I reiterate that I have no real basis for predicting that our beloved Sailors won’t win – but it’s just a weird nagging feeling. Let’s hope I am wrong – COME ON YOU SAILORS! [UPDATE]: After I published this, I saw this post which kinda makes it clear that Zulfahmi

This picture accurately describes what it felt like for the fans the last time we faced Young Lions. We were in control, winning the game, and then suddenly, we fell off the horse, conceded a controversial penalty, and ended up dropping two very valuable points. No matter how you look at it, those two points were the worst dropped points this season. There is no excuse for a club with the resources that we have, to be dropping points to the Young Lions. I don’t think much analysis is needed here. We’re facing a team bottom of the table, with very little confidence. They have lost 4 in a row, and their last loss was particularly gutting – up 3-1, only to lose 4-3 to Tanjong Pagar United. They have the worst goal difference in the league, and only 5 points from 13 games. On the other hand, we are unbeaten in 7 games, and our goalscoring record is 2nd best in the league – going up against the 2nd worst in the league. Sometimes football is easy, and this seems like one of those games. Though that’s what I said the last time we faced Young Lions, and interestingly, we have not beaten them the last two times we faced them. Here’s a few thoughts I have about tonight’s game. Directness The last time we faced Young Lions, they did excellently to limit the Sailors. The midfield and defence shuffled side to side, side to side, as we probed patiently for an opening. A little too patiently, I felt. It seemed like the team was happy to sit on their 1-0 lead. We need to be a bit more confident in our ability to beat Young Lions, and I don’t just mean on the scoreboard. We need to introduce some unpredictability into the play, mix it up. Sometimes we’ll probe around patiently, but other times we’ll take them on on the dribble. Shawal had a bit of a muted game against Tampines – let’s see him bounce right back this game and terrorise whoever is marking him with his pace and directness. Hami is back from suspension, let’s see him not just stroke the ball around, but also go for a few killer passes, just to keep the defenders guessing. Let’s not make things so comfortable for them in defence this time round. If Bernie is fit and if the club intends to rely on him in any shape or form, then perhaps we could think of getting Bernie some minutes this game. There can be no better opponent to try to bully for a huge forward like him. Just Win To be honest, there is not much more to say. Just win. Conclusion Just win, please. Nothing more important than to get 3 points in games such as these. We’ve slipped off the saddle in the last 2 games against Young Lions, let’s get back up where we belong. Come on you Sailors! Score Prediction Joseph, Ethan, and myself predict the scores, and track our success in a table. Stay tuned to find out who is the prediction king! 3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw). Eddy’s prediction: LCS 5 YL 0 Ethan’s prediction: LCS 5 YL 1 Joseph’s prediction: LCS 4 YL 0 And here’s the leaderboard – Written by Eddy Hirono If you don’t want to miss any articles, be sure to follow us on Instagram and join our Telegram chat! 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!

The last time we faced Tampines, it was a shitshow. I felt the 4-3 scoreline flattered the Sailors, and my post-match report was particularly depressing to write, and perhaps more depressing to read. If you don’t wanna relive that nightmare of a performance in full, just take a look at some of the stats from that night. Outpassed, outshot and ultimately outplayed. I think being in the stands felt even worse than the stats suggest. We seemed to be second to many balls, and looked super susceptible to the counter. Of the 3 goals scored, 1 was a fortuitous own goal by Glenn Kweh – which brings me nicely to my first point in this preview. Glenn Kweh In the previous game, it felt a little strange to me that we did not target Glenn Kweh more. This is his first season playing in the left-back position, and while I don’t think he has been a disaster, he has had uncomfortable moments for sure. We have to be ruthless and we have to target him more. Switch it up and really torment him with a mixture of Shawal’s pace and directness, and Maxime’s superior pedigree. If you look at Maxime’s heatmap against Tampines in the last game, we did not target Glenn enough. I can imagine there is nothing more scary than the sight of Maxime running down your wing, so Glenn will have his work cut out for him. The other added benefit of doing this will be that Tampines may have to commit one or two men back to aid Glenn, which will reduce their threat on counter-attacks. Tampines Defence So why so much focus on Glenn Kweh as a possible way to breach the Tampines backline? The answer is simple – they have been rock solid at the back, and it will not be easy to score past them. Tampines have the second-best defence in the league, conceding only 9 goals with 12 games played. In comparison, our Sailors have conceded a whopping 21 goals. A large part of this has been the addition of Milos Zlatkovic this season, whose calm presence in the backline has seemed to stop Tampines’ old habit of passing themselves into trouble. His partnership with Shuya has been a solid one. In transition, Irfan Najeeb also tucks in to play almost like a third centre-back in the backline, and this has worked pretty well for them all season. But it isn’t just their defence. When you watch Tampines, you always feel like they are in control. This is because when they attack, they have Irfan, Shuya, and Milos stroking the ball around at the back, and of course, Kyoga Nakamura as their deep-lying playmaker. He is obviously a very good player, and his calmness fills the defence with confidence because they know if they pass the ball to him, he will retain it well and allow the team to advance. They are a very very patient team – to the point that some of my friends call them a very boring/conservative team, because they do not take many risks with the ball. This has undoubtedly been a reason for their good defensive numbers – if their opponent doesn’t have the ball, they can’t score. Our Sailors attack will have to be on top form to take advantage of the few chances they will have against this Tampines defence. Hami’s Unavailability Hami sits this match out serving a suspension, and it will be interesting to see how Coach Risto shuffles the pack around to deal with his absence. Hami has been quite an integral part of the team, keeping things ticking in midfield with his short but effective passing. My suspicion is that Hariss is brought into midfield, and one of Lionel Tan and Super will be played at the back with Anu. Hariss is defensively a bit more solid than Hami, but perhaps a little less mobile, so it will be interesting to see if we can cope with the hard running and movement of the Tampines midfield. As to how removing Hariss from central defence will affect the team, I think it won’t have a huge impact. All season long I think we’ve seen our Sailors lineup with different central defensive partnerships, and even the most ardent Sailors fan will be hard-pressed to choose the best partnership – we have somehow always looked unconvincing. Of course, I am gonna bring up again the stat that I hate the most – Zharfan has made the most number of saves in the league. This is unsustainable – we cannot keep conceding shots on target. I do not know of any title-contending team in any league where this occurs. Let’s just look at the English Premier League for example. In build-up is where I fear Hami’s absence might be keenly felt – all season long we have benefited from his metronomic quality to pick up the ball and pass it to a teammate. Build-up may feel drastically different, but I think with Hariss and Adam Swandi, hopefully their combined experience and skill will be able to make up for his absence. Abdul Rasaq Abdul Rasaq, I feel will be key in this game. Not just his attacking exploits, which we are all quite used to by now – I believe that defensively he will play a big part. As mentioned above, Kyoga is vital to the Tampines build-up – he picks the ball up in his own half, and often starts orchestrating play, slowly moving Tampines up the pitch. We cannot allow that. We must force Tampines to try to playmake using other players who are less assured on the ball. I hope Rasaq will be detailed to drop in defensive phases to really try to unsettle Kyoga with his superior physique and explosiveness. He is not shy of doing some defensive work, and is a very hard worker off the ball. Just take a look at an excerpt from my post-match thoughts

I am not really into bowling, and I’ve never been really good at it. The one thing good about bowling is that while it’s considered a sport, it takes place in air-conditioned halls, doesn’t involve running, and in between frames I can eat instant noodles. But enough about me, let’s bring it back to the relevance to Balestier v LCS. One thing I absolutely hated when I bowled was the emotions you go through when you achieve a strike, and then in the next two throws, you get something pathetic like 0 and 3. For those not very familiar with bowling rules, when you throw a strike, you not only get 10 added to your score for knocking down 10 pins, you also get a bonus of having the score on your next two throws added as well. So it’s truly a waste if you bowl a strike, and then follow it up with lame throws and get only a few bonus points added. The Albirex game was the strike. A glorious achievement that could and should prove vital for the team’s morale moving forward. If we didn’t actually believe it before, we should now believe that we are title contenders. However, it would mean little if we go on to drop points against teams that we should not be dropping points against. Balestier Khalsa’s Strength I waxed lyrical about Balestier Khalsa the last time I wrote about them. Even though the season was only 3 games old at that point, I had seen enough to suggest that Balestier Khalsa are not a shit team, and would pose teams in the league some problems. In the 9 games since I wrote that, they have picked up 4 wins and 5 losses, and are 4th in the table, the “best of the rest“. This is no mean feat for a team that many regularly underestimate. They come into this game with the league’s 3rd-best attack (better than Tampines Rovers), and in Ryoya Taniguchi and Daniel Goh, have two absolute weapons that people really fear. Ryoya is joint-top scorer in the league with 10 goals, while Daniel is on 5 goals. Assists-wise, Ryoya and Daniel both have recorded 4 assists. I referred to them as a dynamic duo 3 games into the season, and they have not disappointed thus far. Balestier Khalsa also record more shots and more shots on target than our beloved Sailors, and if you were to poll every SPL fan for their top 5 central midfielders in terms of form this season, I think it’s likely that Ho Wai Loon’s name will pop up very often. However, we still must beat them, and here’s why. Worst Defence in the League Balestier have conceded 35 goals in 11 games – more than 3 goals a game. Even considering that they try to play a progressive brand of football and score a truckload of goals, they still concede at an alarming rate. Why is this so? I am no master tactician – but my view is that it comes down to a few key points – lack of a steely defensive midfielder to screen in front of the back four, lack of a commanding goalkeeper, and lack of an able defensive partner for Madhu. I won’t dive too deep into any of my points above – maybe just a few lines each to elaborate. No steely DM – Alen Kozar has helped with ball progression, but for some of Balestier’s goals, there’s just this gaping hole in front of the defence that opponents repeatedly take advantage of. Opponents are allowed far too much time on the ball sometimes – we saw this for the 1st and last Albirex goals against them in the last game. Especially for the first goal, you can see that Madhu had to come out to one Albirex player, and when the pass was made to Kunori, there was still noone else helping out, so Madhu himself had to get out there to close down. Someone with more tigerish bite is needed for the Tigers if they are to stop leaking soft goals. Lack of a commanding goalkeeper – I don’t think I am being harsh when I say that Hairul could have done way better with half of the goals conceded against Albirex. For the 2nd goal, he parries a weak shot right back into the danger zone. For the 3rd goal, he probably predicted that the striker was going to shoot to his left, and made up his mind too early, but even then, the eventual shot was so near to where he was, that he should still have saved it. It was much the same for the 5th goal – probably predicting a hit to the far post, Hairul was completely foxed by a tame shot to the near post by Fuwa. This continues a pattern of him performing below par this season – who can forget him conceding against Maxime in the reverse fixture? The ball was mishit by Maxime and the volley bounced into the ground and up into the air. It should have been an easy save, but he couldn’t regain his footing and meekly watched it sail in. His defenders were so stunned they just stood and watched long after the ball had gone in. Partner for Madhu – Madhu this year has shown shades of going back to his best, especially in the game against Tampines where he shackled Boris Kopitovic and really limited his impact on the game. While Boris did score two penalties, but I think even he would admit that Madhu had the edge over him that game. However, his defensive partner has not been a constant. Amer Hakeem, Fabian Kwok, and Emmeric have all been tried next to him, and I can’t quite tell who is the best partner for him. They’ve all been unconvincing, so this may be part of the reason why Balestier have let in so many goals. However, all