News Reactions – SailorFanTalk

[Specials] Quick Thoughts on Our Singapore Cup Draw

By now, you should have seen it all over the socials, but in case you haven’t, here it is. Quick thoughts – this seems like an OK group for us, considering that it doesn’t contain Albirex, and all the teams in there are below us in the league table. But of course, because only Albirex is above us. Before I share with you some questions / thoughts about the teams we are drawing, let’s take a look at how we did against these teams this season in the league. Record Against Our Cup Opponents Balestier Khalsa – Played 3, Won 3. Scored 13, Conceded 6. (3-0, 5-4, 5-2) Hougang United – Played 3, Won 3. Scored 16, Conceded 2. (5-0, 3-0, 8-2) Tanjong Pagar United – Played 3, Won 3. Scored 13, Conceded 4. (3-1, 7-1, 3-2) I think the results speak for themselves. Of the 9 games played, we have won all 9, scoring 42 goals and conceding 12. But of course, scorelines don’t always tell the full picture. Balestier Khalsa I think most LCS fans will feel that the 5-4 game against Balestier Khalsa was a game where we felt there was total chaos. The recent 5-2 win was also a game where we couldn’t glean much from considering that Madhu Mohana got sent off so early in the first half. Balestier Khalsa have also played an impressive brand of progressive football this season, so they’ll be the ones we fear most going into the Cup. Memories of last season’s 5-3 collapse in the league and the 3-3 draw in the cup are also still fresh for some traumatised fans – like me. Hougang United All 3 games against them were comfortable this season. If you wanna be nitpicky, the 5-0 win needed Zharfan Rohaizad to be on his best form to ensure that Hougang didn’t score against us. However, the Hougang team was always missing one or two key players in their match-ups against us. With Maksimovic settling in, with Shahdan Sulaiman coming back to fitness, and with their managerial instability finally gone, will they be a threat to us? Tanjong Pagar United Strangely, despite their low position in the table, out of the 3 games against them, we actually didn’t look all too convincing in 2 of them, the 3-1 win to kick off the season, and the recent 3-2 win where we turned it around late in the game at Bishan Stadium. They boast many experienced players, and funnily enough a good few of them were from Home Utd so there’s some history there. I’ve always had a soft spot for the team this season in games where I am a neutral, because of the presence of players like Faizal Roslan, Shahrin Saberin, Shakir Hamzah, Naqiuddin Eunos, etc. So they could very well be dark horses. If they can somehow coax out better performances from their foreigners – they might be one to watch out for. Makeup of Our Team Unless we hear anything to the contrary, the foreigner quota should still be 3+1 (just like in SPL). Who we choose for the 3+1 will be indicative of how we prioritise the cups, and perhaps even how the club decides to share the workload. I am gonna assume that we have 3 matchdays in the group stage, then followed by 2 matchdays in the semifinal, and one matchday in the final. Of course, this assumes that we make it all the way through. These are the foreigners on our books – Richairo Zivkovic, Maxime Lestienne, Diego Lopes, Rui Pires, Kodai Tanaka, Super, Bailey Wright, Pedro Henrique. 8 in total. Who will fill the 3+1? With the exception of Kodai Tanaka, the rest of the foreigners all saw gametime against Spurs so we can assume that fitness-wise they are good to go. Bailey Wright and Kodai Tanaka are the Asians, so it is between them for the +1 slot. Of course, we can choose to register both of them, but that would mean we have a tricky task picking from the rest. Will the club decide that the SG Cup is a good opportunity to play someone like Kodai Tanaka in games that are against lower-quality opposition? If so, will that mean deregistering Richairo so that he can focus on the ACL? Same with Pedro Henrique and Rui Pires, will they be given SG Cup slots to get more gametime to try to get them up to speed faster considering they have not played a lot of football at all? Many possibilities, no answers as of yet, so I guess it’s wait and see. Personally, I would hope that given the disappointment of not winning the league title, we are not in a position to turn our nose up at any silverware. As such, I hope we we will register our strongest possible team. Let me know in the comments or in our Telegram chat if you disagree! Cup Scheduling I find it so strange that it is now the end of August, but yet noone knows for sure whether the group stage games will be one-off, or home-away format. The difference in terms of scheduling must be huge. There’s potentially an additional 3 games to play, and let’s not forget, we have to play them while navigating our AFC Champions League games as well. Also, (shoutout to Kidou from the Telegram chat) for this thought – if we make it to the SG Cup Semis and Finals, the games will be within 3/4 days of our Champions League games. In case it ends up being 3 games, i would hope that there can be some flexibility from FAS to allow more rest-time before our ACL games by rescheduling cup fixtures. This has been done in English football, and although I know it’s not easy, I hope that once the fixtures are released, our club will look into it and immediately get the ball rolling in terms of making such arrangements. Avoiding Albirex I have

[Thoughts] Goodbye Risto – A Look at His Tenure and Possible Replacements

Leave a Comment / News Reactions / Eddy Hirono

The first thing I’ll say is that this was a bolt from the blue. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! I apologise, that was a reflex, an involuntary reaction once I heard “blue”. That chant came from nowhere – and that’s exactly how all the fans felt yesterday I suppose. We were just minding our own business, hard at work, when suddenly, our Telegram and Whatsapp chats started going off around 5:30pm. The news came out of nowhere, and noone saw it coming. “Lion City Sailors have reached a mutual agreement with Risto Vidaković to go our separate ways”. We all know what that means, it means Risto was sacked. First reaction was one of sadness for sure. It’s never nice seeing anybody go out of a job, particularly when Risto has been so nice and humble whenever we spoke to him post-game. Never one for many words of course, but when he did speak, he showed appreciation for us as fans. On a human level, it stings I guess, seeing someone put out of a job. That’s now two head coaches gone, both in mid-season. Just 6 months ago, regular readers will know that I released a piece about how affected I was that the club seemed to be letting so many people go. After feeling the sadness on a very human level for Risto, I decided to take a look at his tenure, and so these are some of my thoughts. Weak Defence I’ve said this again and again in my matchday previews, post-match thoughts articles, etc. Our defending this season is weak. We have conceded 23 goals this year. Albirex has conceded 8, while Tampines have conceded 10. We are conceding at a rate of 1.64 goals allowed per game. That’s cause for concern. Let me bang the “How is Zharfan making so many saves” drum again. Look, I am happy whenever any of our Sailors tops a chart, be it in goals, assists, chances created, etc, but this is a list where topping it is a double-edged sword. Or shall I say a triple-pronged sword, where one blade is pointing away, but two blades are pointing at you. It’s definitely more bad than good to be top of this list. Good on Zharfan to be making those saves, but no title contender should be conceding so many shots, and so many goals. Is that all down to the coach though? I don’t think so. I think it’s unfair to blame it all on the coach. We’ve had to deal with Pedro Henrique’s absence, and I don’t think we’ve really had a settled back four all season. The quality of our depth, however, should mean that we deal with it a bit better than we have, but it is what it is. Comparisons It’s never so straightforward, just to compare last season to the seasons that came before this, but let’s see if we can glean anything from here as to why Risto may have been sacked. Interestingly, despite only having been here half a year, he has managed to guide us to roughly the same number of points per game achieved last season. Although 2.79 goals per game was a stat picked out by the club in their farewell post, it is actually our lowest in 3 seasons, and it comes along with a worrying 1.64 goals conceded per game. For me, there’s nothing in the stats that’s truly conclusive, and I think it’s also unfair to judge a coach just based on 14 games. Especially when his star striker was injured almost immediately after he took over, and he also does not have his first-choice central defender available. The Timing of the Sacking On this site, I have often bemoaned a lack of control in games. See for example, my post-match thoughts after we beat Balestier Khalsa 5-4, or my post-match thoughts after the 3-3 draw with DPMM. In fact, on one occasion, I think I directly mentioned Risto. When Coach Risto first joined, he also spoke about wanting to play with a focus on “offensive football”. Has he delivered that? I think what really gets me is not just the fact that he has been sacked, but how early the sacking comes. 14 games into a season, is it fair for a coach to be judged just 6 mths and 14 games into his tenure? I felt he also showed signs of being able to adapt – and it was very impressive how we limited Tampines even before the sending-off, to nothing but a hopeful strike from range. They created nothing that game – and this was a direct response to the utter chaos that descended on Bishan Stadium when we beat Balestier Khalsa in that 5-4 game. So there were signs that this was a coach who may not have gotten everything right from the get-go, but was able to adapt, and maybe overcome if given a chance. Then there’s also the fear that the timing of the sacking calls to mind last year’s disaster as well, where the team was in disarray and looked directionless after the mid-season sacking of Coach Kim Do Hoon. When the new coach comes in, will he be able to implement any new philosophies? Will there be a bedding-in period? Is he someone already familiar with the players such that he doesn’t need to trial and error while our season is very much in progress? Conclusion and Possible Replacements I think given how early it is in Risto’s stint, it is definitely a risk getting rid of him. We have no insider information, but my pure speculation is that there was either some internal strife between him and his players, or him and the board, which made his position untenable. I do not think results and performances alone warranted such an early sacking. The other possibility of course, is that the board is so confident that his replacement will be better, and thus it’s worth it

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