Post-Match Thoughts

It was a dream start for us in our first ever home game in the AFC Champions League. Last season’s “home” games don’t count because they were all played in Buriram in a centralised tournament due to Covid-19. As is so often the case, whenever Chris van Huizen gets a cross into the box, things happen. Last night was no different. As the left-footed cross was whipped into the box, it was half-cleared to our Brazilian magnifico, Diego Lopes. He had sent a shot high and wide just 5 minutes ago, but this time, he hit it sweetly on the volley, and it nestled in the bottom corner of the net. Jalan Besar erupted. After a long period where we sat deep and frustrated our Thai guests, this was a much-needed boost of energy. We all know how this one ends, so there’s no need for a spoiler alert, but at the time, it was a sweet moment for the fans. It’s now a day later, so there’s been some time to process my thoughts about the game. Tactical stuff I will touch on, but not in detail – I will leave that to Zach as usual in our upcoming Tactical Analysis article. Let’s go. Angst about the Angst Post-match, after I went about doing all the interviews (both player and fans), I went online to look at the reactions to the Sailors’ defeat. While there were some comments commending the atmosphere, and others acknowledging the effort put in by the players, there were also annoyingly, rather many comments having a go at our players, saying that they lacked effort, were very poor, or were not well-prepared – often a combination of all the above. I felt that based on the eye-test and what I observed during the game, these comments were unfair and were perhaps borne out of angst at the final result. Not analysis, not rational thought, just angst. And then I ended up getting angsty too. I think for me what really swung it was that it was not only the faceless Internet trolls having a go – it was our fans in the SailorFanTalk Telegram chat. Comments such as “they aren’t well-prepared for the tournament during training“, “it feels like we suddenly cannot play football and play like YL“, “players have no desire “, “when we have the ball, how do we keep [the ball]? It’s got nothing to do with opponent“. Where was all this negativity coming from? And in the case of the last comment, how can someone be so angsty that logic flies out of the window? How can your success in keeping the ball not be at least in part affected by the quality of your opponents? These are unfair comments that unnecessarily shit on our own players, players we should be supporting. It was as if people had forgotten that the Sailors were the underdogs coming into this game. Maybe they should read this blog a bit more! Haha. [This way if you wanna re-read the preview.] Then there were people who asked a fair question – could we really count ourselves as underdogs? We were after all, a little lucky in the draw and had escaped drawing the likes of Urawa Red Diamonds and Kawasaki Frontale. Some people felt quite rightly, that we were in the “easiest” group. I think however, the reality is that in the ACL, almost any group we get drawn into, we are gonna be underdogs. Here was my response in full – And that brings me to my next point – in the cold light of day, having rewatched the game, and also with the benefit of statistical reports, can we say that Bangkok Utd didn’t really create any good chances? Our Sailors Did Well Defensively Against a team top of the Thai League, a team that finished 2nd in the league last year, and that had also beaten the reigning champions 2-0 this season, we did well. Really well. Considering the quality of our opponents, I think to limit them to under 1 xG, is very impressive. This was also borne out by the eye-test, where they hardly created any good opportunities. The best chance for our opponents I think was the second half opportunity for Mahmoud Eid which shaved the post on its way out – he was kept quiet all night by the impressive Mamat. As mentioned in my Telegram message earlier, the goals came from slightly bad marking at one set-piece (disappointing of course), and a piledriver right into the top corner. While the players are not blameless in this, I am not sure we should be faulting their effort. Here’s another interesting stat to show you which I think speaks to the effort the players put in – duels won. In terms of duels, we pretty much outperformed them in almost every category, which suggests desire was not the problem. In fact, one of the enduring memories for me from this game was the sight of Richairo Zivkovic running back on more than one occasion all the way to the line of our penalty area to help out in defence. Desire was definitely not the issue and defensively our Sailors frustrated our opponents. In the post-match press conference, Bangkok United manager Totchtawan Sripan said that in their pre-match analysis, they had prepared for the Sailors lining up with 5 at the back despite not doing so in the domestic league. It is to our Sailors’ credit that even though our opponents knew what was coming, they still struggled to create chances. But could we have been slightly more attacking? Let’s discuss that. Should Sailors Have Opened Up More? I can’t lie – this was a thought that kept nagging away at me after the game (and maybe even at times in the first half). While we limited our more illustrious opponents to nothing more than half-chances and long shots, we ourselves did not pose a consistent threat. Often, our

As mentioned in the preview piece, this game mattered little to us, and so it was interesting to see such a strong lineup. Maxime, Diego, Richairo, all started. Other players you would expect to see start on Wednesday, such as Hafiz Nor, Chris van Huizen, Hariss Harun, and Zharfan Rohaizad played 90min as well. Curiously, Bailey Wright was not on the pitch and also not on the bench, so there may be some doubt as to whether he will be fit to start Wednesday’s game. There were some positives for us to take from this game, so let’s dive right into it. Noone Got Injured + People Got Minutes I think the first positive out of this is that nobody picked up an injury. With the Singapore Cup and the AFC Champions League right around the corner, we are gonna need everyone on board, not just for the numbers, but also for the variety. Long-time followers of the Sailors will know that we have some really good players, but each offers something a little different. Hafiz Nor and Mamat both defend and get down the wing pretty much all game – however Hafiz Nor packs a better shot, while Mamat is perhaps that bit more solid defensively. This is just one example – but I think you get my point. Coach Rankovic will want his full arsenal of talent available to him so he can pick the right weapon for the right game situations. Zivkovic and Lestienne got 45min each – and I think this is your most quintessential “get some minutes under your belt” kind of performance. Neither of them looked anywhere near their flying best, and I really don’t think Geylang had anything to do with it. Subconsciously, I think some players already thought ahead to Wednesday’s crunch tie against Bangkok United, and wanted to make sure they didn’t pick up an injury. Some players on the other hand, probably knew they were not gonna start on Wednesday and so turned in great performances to try and play themselves into the manager’s plans – more on that next. Haiqal Pashia – A Man on a Mission Shoutout to Haiqal Pashia – who I thought really changed the game when he came on. By his own admission in a post-match selfie interview, he should have had a hat-trick. First, when he cut in around the 52nd minute and hit it hard in front of goal, but Hafiz Ahmad did well to save it. Then, late on in the game, Nathan Mao did well to put two chances on a plate for him, but he only managed to score one. It was an energetic performance, and one the team really needed because the first half was very flat. Haiqal’s runs in behind made Geylang’s defence look a bit more unsettled, and when Haiqal’s first shot was well-saved, eventually the pressure told, and when the ball was recycled and played to Chris on the left flank, he whipped in a delightful ball for Shawal Anuar to score with a commanding header. It was a crucial goal that put us level on the scoreboard early in the second half. Perhaps the more recent followers of the Sailors might not know this, but Haiqal Pashia wasn’t always a bit-part player for us. In the 2021 season, except for when he was out injured, he started every game for us. This was in part, due to the rule which required all SPL clubs to start a U23 player and not substitute the player until at least the second half. To his credit, this did not happen all the time, and he was an integral part of the team that won the title for us that year. This season, until the 1-1 draw with Tampines in June, he had only made a single appearance and even then, for only 11 min against Geylang in March. Since June, he has made 9 appearances, although most of them have been as late subs into the game. Not much gametime for him. If you really wanted to see him play more minutes, you would have to watch him in the U21 league, where he is often the main attacker, and has a role of the “veteran” leading the younger boys. I have watched a few of the U21 games, and the pattern for him seems to be that he makes very good runs, and often ends up with good chances, but perhaps he could do a little more with his end product. If he can combine the 2, he’ll be a cracking player. Which is why it is so satisfying to see him score 2 goals in 2 substitute appearances for us. Some may remember the title-winning season where we went into a game with Albirex at Jalan Besar Stadium, and a win would see us seize the title initiative heading into the final few games. It was September, crunch time in the season. In a game where we had to dig deep and defend for long stretches, our threat on the counter-attack was gonna be our main weapon, and so it proved. Midway through the first half, Haiqal Pashia was on the end of a Faris Ramli cross, and he put us 1-0 up, allowing Sailors fans to dream. It was however, also the same game where Haiqal made a similarly good run, was again found by Faris Ramli, and somehow he managed to miss with an open goal to aim at. Eventually Albirex snatched a late equaliser and we thought we lost the title, but Tampines did us a big favour, held them to a draw later in the season, and we were still CHAMPIONS. Oh shit I digressed big time. Point is this – Haiqal Pashia could prove crucial for us in the ACL when we will have to sit deep and defend well, and hit opponents on the counter. I cannot imagine us playing any other way against Jeonbuk, for example. The starting

This article should really have come out earlier but WordPress will be the death of me. Usually reliable, it decided to crash while I was 99% done with the article and typing my concluding thoughts. How very annoying – and so I have to start all over again. (Yes, I did save along the way, but even the backups are gone – what a tragedy.) It’s not often that someone can get 2 goals and 3 assists in the game and yet not be the focus of an article, but that’s exactly what will happen to Maxime Lestienne in this article. I will still of course, touch a little on Maxime first before talking about Richairo and the rest, so let’s go. The New Normal Yikes. Guess it has been a while since you saw that dreaded phrase. At first, when it was used during the Covid-19 period and I first heard it, I thought to myself, “well isn’t that such a succinct and elegant way to describe the pandemic!” But after a while, when everyone around you and in the supermarket and in the coffeeshop started saying “new normal” and even the mynahs cooing sounded like they were cooing “new normal”, it got a little tiresome and I wanted to puke whenever I heard it. What has this got to do with Lestienne? I think we are spoiled, haha. Lestienne is now on 25 goals and 21 assists this season and that’s just…insane. It’s calculator time again, so that’s 46 goal contributions in 23 games, making it 2 goal contributions a game. Just madness. It’s the 8th time this season that he has recorded both a goal and an assist in the same game. For him, impressive feats are “normal”. And that probably explains why even on a day when he got 2 goals and 3 assists, my mind was dominated by Richairo, who himself picked up 2 goals and 1 assist. Long may this “new normal” last. LCS, please put a damn contract in front of him and let him sign it! Richairo = Curry No, not the former NBA Most Valuable Player. The more important one. You know how when you eat Nasi Padang or Caifan, what is important is whether the rice is cooked well, whether the vegetables are fresh and nice, and whether the meats selected are tender. But to really elevate the dish, you need a good curry on top of it. It’s why you flirt with the Nasi Padang makcik, it’s why you tell the Caifan Uncle that his new watch very bright ah, Uncle, you strike TOTO is it Uncle? All you want is for them to smile to themselves and then just put 2 seconds more worth of curry onto your plate. Then you can bring it back to your seat and just whack and savour the curry as it makes every component of your dish taste better. Yes? Yup, Richairo Zivkovic is the curry. You won’t die if you don’t have it – your nasi padang is still nasi padang, your caifan is still caifan. There’s still a bit of gravy in those other dishes, your beansprouts, your sweet and sour chicken. There’s still gravy – the dish still works. In football terms, your team will still function – your team still works. But Richairo is different gravy, man. Some of you may know that I felt the criticism of Kim Shin-Wook last season was harsh. I felt he drastically improved his goalscoring ratio here as compared to that he achieved in other leagues, and he looked like he was genuinely trying his best. That was last season. This season, we all feel that Abdul Rasaq is doing a great job upfront, and has reached double digits (more on this later). But when you look at Richairo in full flight, it’s really a sight to behold. When he’s down the wings, I can tell you he must be a nightmare to defend. As someone who plays fullback quite a bit, the worst players to mark are those who are fast, can cross with both feet, can win the ball in the air, and can shoot with both feet. He is all of the above. Watch him in games – his left-footed crosses are better than some players’ right-footed crosses even though it is his weak foot. This game alone, both goals he scored with his weak foot, and the first of those goals was an absolute rocket into the top corner. While the team was still doing quite well even before he joined us, since he has joined us, every attack looks that bit more dangerous. Since he has started in the team, the team has achieved a slightly higher goals per game average. Of course, there is a very small sample size involved so please take this stat with a pinch of salt. We spoke with Richairo after the game, and it was funny how he took his own goal with good humour, but also very interesting to see that he was quite impressed with some of the attacking combinations during the game, especially on the counter. He also spoke about how this would be useful in the Champions League if we face good opposition. Check it out for yourself! Abdul Rasaq – Young Lion Is there anything noteworthy about this table of top 10 goalscorers and assisters in our league? You may notice that out of the 20 names here, only 3 are Singaporean – Abdul Rasaq with 10 goals, Joel Chew with 9 assists, and Adam Swandi with 7 assists. This is not the time and place to examine all factors about why this is so, because that would need a long article with tons of input from various sources. We just want to take this opportunity to congratulate Abdul Rasaq on what is a very impressive achievement. He started this season as the no. 2 striker behind Kodai Tanaka, and when given the chance to

Tampines Rovers again put us upstairs in the top tier, but it was them who ended up in tears at the end of the night. After an electrifying performance, especially in the first half, we went in 3-0 ahead at half-time, and I think many will be forgiven for thinking that it was game over. Credit to Tampines Rovers of course for making it slightly difficult, but when our attack is in this type of form, it is very hard to stop us from picking up maximum points, and so it proved, as Maxime Lestienne and Richairo Zivkovic picked up a hat-trick and a brace respectively, to see us score 5 goals at Our Tampines Hub. Electrifying. This season, we have scored 5 or more goals 5 times – 10 April 2023 – Hougang 0 LCS 5 1 June 2023 – Balestier 4 LCS 5 1 July 2023 – Tanjong Pagar 1 LCS 7 31 July 2023 – LCS 5 Balestier Khalsa 2 4 August 2023 – Tampines 2 LCS 5 Amazingly, none of these 5 times was against Young Lions, the whipping boys this season. These goals have contributed to our very-impressive tally of 68 goals. Electrifying. Not only is there quantity when it comes to goals, there is quality as well. And speaking of quality of goals, let’s start right there with Maxime’s performance and three goals. Electrifying. Chips Ahoy! (Maxime Loves his Chips) Yes, in case you were wondering about the relevance of using a picture of Chips Ahoy! cookies for this article, this part should explain it. Maxime is a Sailor. Sailors shout “Ahoy”. Maxime tried 3 chips against Syazwan Buhari and scored two goals. My tangled gluttonous mind immediately thought of chocolate chip cookies when I saw this happen. Yes I know, I am weird. Sorry not sorry. Moving on. As early as the 2nd minute, Maxime had already tried to chip Syazwan and was unlucky not to hit the target. It was Kyoga Nakamura who made the error, giving the ball away in the face of some heavy Sailors pressure. Without missing a beat, Maxime immediately hit the loose ball over Syazwan, but unfortunately over the bar as well. 1st out of 3 chips unsuccessful. The 2nd of 3 chips, in the 18th minute, was rather more successful. Tampines once again lost it in defence, and Lestienne robbed Yasir Hanapi who didn’t know he was right behind him. Once again, without missing a beat, and with just a very quick glance, Maxime utilises his left leg like a sand wedge (golfing term) to achieve just the right amount of height to get it up and over Syazwan for a lovely goal. 2-0, 18 min gone, Tampines are well and truly rocked. The audacity and quick thinking to chip it in from that range? Electrifying. The 3rd chip came as a result of some brilliant defensive work by Hariss to win possession in midfield. A quick measured ball over the top from Diego Lopes into the box sent Lestienne free, and with the keeper coming to close down the angle, Maxime chipped him. Now if that were me in that spot, I would’ve just admired how the ball arced nicely over Syazwan and get ready to celebrate. But not Maxime, he continues his run and when it comes off the post, he is in position to tap the rebound in. Elite. Hat-trick goal. Oh, and lest I forget, electrifying. Stadium Announcer for Tampines If by now, you’re wondering why I am using the word “electrifying” in almost every damn paragraph, it’s because days after the game and even though we won 5-2, I still cannot get over the fact that the Tampines Rovers stadium announcer described Boris Kopentovic’s penalty as “electrifying”. So let me address it now so that I can scratch that itch and the word “electrifying” won’t have to appear again. Now, if you think that I raise it up to say that the stadium announcer is shit – far from it. In fact, I give him a 9/10 because I think the energy was on point. In a game where there was nothing much for Tampines fans to get excited about, the 2nd goal after being 3-0 down needed some hyping up – the crowd was already excited at the tantalising prospect of a comeback, and the announcer had to feed the fire a bit more, to really get a rousing atmosphere going. What I especially liked was the repeated chant of “BORIS”, leaving the fans to fill in the blanks with shouts of “Kopitovic”. It is engaging, and it really got the crowd going. Of course, the small criticism I have is of the word “electrifying”. Someone buy the man a thesaurus or a dictionary so that a more appropriate word can be used there. How on God’s green earth is that penalty an “electrifying goal”? It was a good penalty, but you know, you’re expected to score those. Minor quibble! Still, major props to the stadium announcer, who probably won’t read this. Post-match I chatted with Brandon and Barry, and Barry said that he felt the announcer was doing a good job of delivering excitement to the fans, rather than just saying what he needs to say in a drab tone. Let’s see more of this at other stadiums! Pressing from the Front Look at these two images. You can see that the Sailors really tried to keep a compact block in the middle to force Tampines to play it wide. However, Tampines are very good passers and this season a lot of their success has come because they’ve dared to play even in congested middle areas. Usually this is aided by Kyoga Nakamura – who is a steadying presence in the midfield, always resisting the press with short sharp movements to manipulate himself into a position to get his team out of trouble and then to facilitate the attack. However, he did not have a great game, and

Not quite the Fibonacci sequence or the code to my safe, but 7-3-2-1 was the story of the day. I brought two friends to watch their first Lion City Sailors game, and I don’t think they could have picked a better game to come watch. One was an Olympique Marseille fan club member who I’d crossed swords with before in the Fan Club 5s League, while the other was someone who’d been in the sports industry for 20 years in Singapore but who has had rotten luck with clubs he supports – they always close down. Think Warriors, LionsXII, Tanjong Pagar United (before their revival), etc. It was fascinating watching the game, but it was also fascinating watching my invitees’ reactions as they couldn’t quite process what they were watching in that first half. Penalties given for what didn’t always look like penalties, a VAR check for an offence that occurred while I was still making my way into the stadium, missed penalties, some unconvincing defending from the Sailors, and a valiant Balestier side that just refused to accept that they were going to lose when they went down to 10 men. It was riveting stuff – when I interview people for SailorFanTalk – people sometimes know that we don’t run the kind of channel that profits off negativity, and so they try to say nice things, they try to gloss over some of the Sailors’ weaknesses, try to play up the Sailors’ effectiveness, etc, but when you watch people’ s faces, that’s where you get the truth. And the truth was that they couldn’t make sense of what they were watching. But now as we sit in the cold light of day – let’s go over some thoughts. Richairo’s Missed Penalty Richairo joins the ranks of Diego and Maxime of having missed a penalty kick this season. Thankfully, the penalty miss didn’t affect the result. It did however, affect the race between Ryoya Taniguchi and Maxime Lestienne for top-scorer indirectly. Given that the title is highly improbable now, I would have thought the team would do Maxime a favour and let him take the penalty, and help him boost his goal tally. It may also help him to continue exorcising some of the demons caused by the crucial penalty miss against Brunei DPMM. However, it was not to be, as Richairo stepped up and his effort was comfortably saved by Hairul Syirhan. Not quite sure what the decision-making was here, but it would seem that in the pecking order, Richairo is no. 1, and Maxime is no. 2. If that’s the case, then Maxime is a “good soldier” who is willing to listen to team instructions even in the face of potential personal glory – that is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Remember Cavani v Neymar all those years back when Neymar was the new boy on the scene in Paris Saint-Germain? If that is not the case, and Maxime has just graciously allowed Richairo to take the penalty to boost his goal tally and get him firing, then that’s very admirable from him. His unselfishness knows no bounds – more on that later. Whatever it is, I know what I prefer – I hope for SPL games at least, his teammates allow him to rack up some more goals to push him past Ryoya. Maxime Continues Providing With 2 assists in this game, Maxime is now on 18 assists. 18 assists in 21 games. This time round, he got it with a swerving corner kick, and rather curiously, a shot attempt that was pushed out weakly by Hairul Syirhan into the path of Richairo Zivkovic, who slotted it in. I say “curious”, because I had no idea that a saved shot counts as an assist! I know in Fantasy Premier League terms, it is counted as an assist, but this is the first time I’ve seen a saved shot attempt count as an assist in the SPL. Someone please correct me if I am wrong! Leave a comment after this article or drop me a message on Telegram either through DM or in the SailorFanTalk Telegram chat. Whatever it is, there is just no catching Maxime in the assists category. His next closest challenger is Diego Lopes with 11 assists, and after that it’s all single digits. Huge props to Joel Chew and Daniel Goh by the way for being the only Singaporean representatives in this table! Old boy Shahdan would certainly be on this list as well if not for his injury, but I digress. Zharfan Rohaizad What a monster save from the spot. ‘Nuff said. Lionel “Kompany” Tan Some similarities to walk you through for this one – let’s compare Lionel Tan’s strike v Vincent Kompany’s strike against Leicester City in the 2018/2019 season. Watch Lionel’s interview with us after the game. Bailey Wright Whenever a centreback gets a brace, it’s always noteworthy. So it’d have been criminal if we allowed this article to end without mentioning Bailey Wright. He absolutely dominated at setpieces, and scored two headers – one of which I am gonna call a “wrecking ball” header. You know which one I am referring to. It’s the first one, where he comes in like a bullet train, or a guy speeding because he really really really needs the toilet. From that range, all he really needs is to glance it in. But no, not our Bailey. He properly blasted it in with his head – if that makes sense. The perfect combination of neck muscles and momentum giving him the wrecking ball effect. He doesn’t score many, but he got 2 this time, in his birthday week as well. What impeccable timing. However, it wasn’t all rosy in Bailey-land, and he himself admitted in an interview that he had a bit more to work on his game. Check out what he had to say below (full link here) – Him saying it means I don’t have to say it –

13 minutes and 27 seconds in. New boy Rui Pires holds, and then sprints forward to intercept a loose pass. Within seconds, the ball is worked out right to Maxime. Richairo makes a convincing decoy run into the middle, pushing the defensive line back. Then comes the crucial moment – Shawal raises his left hand to get Maxime’s attention, and then darts behind Pedro Porro. The cross comes and it’s as we expect, a brilliant ball from our Belgian wizard – all it needs is a finish. Shawal, with the deftest of touches, lifts it over the despairing Guglielmo Vicario. As it bounces in, the fans begin to cheer. It is 1-0, improbably, against one of the best teams in the English Premier League. A moment like this, some people wait a lifetime, for a moment like this. For some reason when I was rewatching the game at home on MeWatch, this Kelly Clarkson song just came into my head when I saw Shawal score. Scoring a goal is always nice and great, but scoring against Spurs to put your team 1-0 up in the National Stadium? That’s gotta be a highlight for him, and so it was – he said in his post-match interview with TNP that it was a happy feeling for him and it was “one of the best moments for [him] in his career to score against a big team like this“. This moment, and what came after felt so great, partly because Spurs started the game with a strong lineup. Let’s examine how strong their lineup was, and also talk about some other things A Strong Spurs Starting Lineup This may have been affected by their Bangkok friendly being cancelled, which meant that Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou had to use this match to give match fitness to his stars. I was a little shocked to see the starting lineup. It was basically a lineup that you would expect to see in a Premier League game. In fact, when I saw the front four of Kane, Son, Maddison and Kulusevski, I feared the worst. Between them, they have amassed 434 Premier League goals and many other assists. In midfield, they had Bissouma and Sarr, collectively signed for upwards of 50m pounds, and appearing 183 times in the Premier League between them. In defence, they had Cristian Romero, the World Cup winner who takes a no-nonsense approach to the game. They also had Ben Davies, the Welsh fullback cum centreback who is closing in on 400 appearances in the Premier League. And then in goal, Vicario, the 17m pound new signing from Italy. Wherever you looked, there was quality on display. This was after all a team that completely dominated West Ham barely a week ago, despite losing it 3-2. Facing the fearsome Spurs attack was a new-look backline which did give me a bit of optimism. Bailey Wright was flanked by Pedro Henrique and Super. It had been a while since we last saw Pedro in action after his unfortunate season-ending injury last year, while we have not seen Super in action ever since Bailey joined the club. With Mamat and Chris van Huizen on the outside of the back three, and Zharfan behind them we knew the whole defensive unit would be in for a tough time. But boy, did they make us proud. It took a top Premier League team using their first team, 47 minutes and the award of a penalty kick to open the scoring against the Lion City Sailors – let that sink in. We can be very very proud of what the boys did because of the strength of the Spurs side that we faced. Yes, they may be in preseason, yes it may just be a friendly, but these are players who are looking to impress a new manager. They cared about the result, and they cared about how they played – do not be taken in by some Spurs fans who try to tell you otherwise. Kane’s reaction after he scored was telling – he was almost embarrassed to celebrate. The lineup that started should comfortably have been 2 or 3 goals ahead. A Platform to Impress In the preview article, I mentioned that while this is just a friendly game, this is a chance to impress for the players, and also for the fans. Realistically, when I said it’s a chance to impress, I do not mean that the players will get snapped up by Spurs or any of their rivals watching. What I meant is more that the players and fans have some convincing to do when it comes to attracting locals to the games. Pre-game, when we spoke to Spurs fans, most of them felt that this would be an easy game. I don’t blame them – I myself was probably a little scared that we would see a very lopsided scoreline, which would give a lot of ammunition for haters of local football. There were predictions of 5-0, 6-0, 10-0, and even 7-2 (from an SPL fan). Someone from the Spurs Supporters Club even condescendingly said to us pre-match that “tonight, you guys will experience the thrashing of your lives“. Maybe he thought it was banter, but I felt it was a tad disrespectful and abit strange even. I mean, Spurs players earn in one month what some of our players do not even earn in one year. The expectation IS a thrashing. Anything less than a thrashing would be strange, so to brag about it felt a bit weird to me. If you’re still trying to do some mental sums, let me help you out with this table below showing the weekly wages of some of the reserves, not even first-teamers like Kane and Son and Perisic. The figure in grey is their annual salary, while the column right next to that shows their weekly salary. So, Pape Sarr, who started in midfield earns 80,000 pounds a month, equivalent to about S$136,600.

Our Sailors were far from their sparkling best against Tanjong Pagar United, but came out of the game with a crucial three points. These three points allow us to stay in the title race (mathematically but not realistically), but more importantly help halt the losing run. We will need some momentum going into the AFC Champions League and also the Singapore Cup, so even though the league is gone, we must win all the games remaining to get some confidence back. I have seen many suggestions that the Sailors were lucky to win the game, but is that really a fair assessment of the game? Let me share some of my thoughts on that. Fashah Man of the Match Coach Ranko paid tribute to Fashah’s Man of the Match performance after the game, and it was clear to everyone in attendance that he was having a good game. As early as the 3rd minute, Fashah did well to stand up and spread himself to deny Adam Swandi from point-blank range. In the 40th minute, it was that man again, making a vital save from close range as it looked to all of us like Adam Swandi was bound to score. He was blameless for the 2nd and 3rd goals scored by us, and even though the 1st goal came as a result of a dodgy goal kick, he did manage to make a good save from Diego Lopes’s shot. It was just unfortunate that the rebound fell right to Maxime Lestienne. The Sailors actually created many chances and shots on goal, and had it not been for Fashah’s imperious form, I think we would have been out of sight far before Tanjong Pagar scored their second goal. He made 8 saves, and the stats showed that in terms of xG, he should have conceded 4.72 goals. His interventions were vital. Illusion of Luck – Combination of Timing + Circumstance With stats like these, and the xG of 4.72 (Sailors) v 1.3 (Tanjong Pagar), it is perhaps a little strange that people felt the Sailors were lucky. I think it’s a combination of timing and circumstance, in that the Sailors were behind from the 64th minute all the way until Maxime was fouled for the penalty in the 76th minute. Neutral observers probably felt that Tanjong Pagar was close to pulling off a shock win, until the rash challenge by Raihan Rahman. On that point, I have seen suggestions that it is not a penalty and that Raihan got the ball first. I’d suggest in the most delicate terms, that these people might want to see their optician, and get a new pair of spectacles made. Take a look at the link below, watch it from both angles provided, and I am sure you will agree. I have stopped the time at just before the replays for your convenience. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, back to the point. When a penalty comes as a result of a poor decision by our opponents rather than us “earning” it, I think there is a tendency for people to chalk it up to “luck”. Simply put, Raihan Rahman should have calmed himself down, and coolly hoisted the ball away. He did not need to go in with full swing to whack the ball away. Once he made up his mind to do that, and the ball took an awkward bobble, he had already committed to the swing and thus he ended up kicking Maxime. There was a lengthy VAR check and there were some suggestions that he should have been sent off for a reckless challenge. I think the referee considered the fact that his intention was probably not to kick Maxime. Probably the right decision in the end. The winner from Shawal came 5 minutes before the end of the game as well, adding to the feeling that the Sailors “got away” with the win. Given the stats, I’d disagree with that point. Albirex beat the Sailors in very similar circumstances as well when it came to the timing of goals, having to come from behind, etc, and we gave them full credit for the comeback. I choose to give our Sailors credit for the comeback too. Sleep-walking Defending At times in the first half, people around me commented that the game felt like a pre-season friendly. It did have such a vibe. It seemed like players were not really snapping into challenges, allowing their opponents time and space to saunter around the pitch, and pick out their passes. It was from one such pass that led to TPU scoring from the spot. A routine long ball + some miscommunication ended up being costly as it resulted in a penalty being conceded, and Hafiz Nor getting a yellow card which leaves him suspended for the next game. I felt this sleep-walking vibe continued into the second half as well – Akram Azman was given way too much time and space to amble into the box and pick his spot. If we continue defending like that, we will be taken apart by Spurs and the AFC Champions League teams. Maxime Lestienne + Asis In a season where we are unlikely to win the league, my focus has shifted to hoping that Maxime finishes as top-scorer and also wins the Player of the Season gong. This was probably the easiest brace of his career, slotting in from 1 yard out, and converting a penalty, but it leaves him level on goals with Ryoya Taniguchi – I think it is gonna be crucial to match or exceed his goal tally, please give the powers that be no excuse for taking away Player of the Season from him for two years in a row. Shout-out to Asis as well. In our post-match interview of the fans, aside from the usual flowers for Maxime Lestienne, a fan also singled out Asis for praise. The U21 captain came on, played almost half an hour,

I should have seen it coming, I should have read the signs. Anyway (anywaaaay), I guess it’s over. The last time we played Albirex, we used a Westlife song in our reel to accompany footage of Hafiz Nor flying through the air to execute a brilliant off-the-line clearance, so I thought it was perhaps fitting that this time around, Westlife gets a mention again. If you didn’t spot the Westlife reference, it’s probably cos you’re too young. No matter. Head on down to Youtube and watch tons of Westlife music videos and thank me later. When we scored in the 73rd minute, I genuinely thought we had done it and secured a much-needed win to really open up the title race. But what was I thinking? I have been brought up in the Arsenal school of raised expectations and I really should have guarded myself against having hope. It was a game where I thought we did pretty well in the first half, lost abit of control in the second half before we scored, and then we saw an amazing fightback from Albirex. Heartbreaking – I thought we might be able to cling on for a slightly unlikely victory. Before I share some thoughts with you, can I just say what a delight it was to witness a sold-out crowd in Jurong East Stadium? Fans from both sides were absolutely brilliant in creating a great atmosphere. What an advert for the league. Ok, on to my thoughts. Hassan Sunny First things first, the injury looked very bad and we hope he’s fine. For those not present at the game, you will be relieved to know that the crowd gave Hassan a very warm reception, and when he was injured, there was no booing or unpleasant remarks except for perhaps 1 or 2 unidentified black sheep in the crowd. Upon hearing these remarks, the Crew decided to respond in the best way possible, encouraging each other to chant louder so that we could drown out the noises of a negative few. I think most football fans know that there is a line that should not be crossed. They sometimes shout “Diver!” at players who take a tumble, and boo as the player stays on the ground. However, in a matter of seconds, once it becomes clear that it is a real injury, and the player is receiving treatment, even the most hard-hearted opposition supporter will keep quiet and allow the treatment to proceed. I am pleased and relieved that Hassan could receive his treatment in peace. We are pleased to update that when we spoke to Swan Army (Albirex fan club) members, they informed us that Hassan should be fine as he was discharged on the day itself. The Blame Game In the aftermath of the game, Lionel and Anu copped most of the flak for the late defeat. Fingers were pointed at them for the first two goals conceded, and I think it’s a little harsh. Could they have done better? Yes. But could Hariss have perhaps done better to shuffle over to make a tackle / block instead of holding off to prevent a cutback across goal since Mamat was already covering that option? Perhaps. Could Zharfan have come out of goal faster and just dived at Yokoyama’s feet, or closed the angle better? Yes, perhaps. Could Coach Ranko also be at fault for switching to 5 at the back after we took the lead? This meant that Diego and Hami were tasked to protect the space in front of the 3 centre-backs, not a task they are particularly suited for. Yes, perhaps Coach Ranko was at fault too. If you’re wondering what the point I am making is, the point is that hindsight is 20/20. When Lionel stepped out to make the challenge, more often than not he will win the ball or give away a foul given his physical defending style. This time Kunori did well (with a bit of luck) to hold on to the ball and divert it into the path of Yokoyama. If you ask Kunori himself whether he thought his little flick of the boot would work so well, he’ll probably chuckle and tell you “No”. It worked because Anu moved across just a little bit for the ball to squirt through to him. For a goal to happen, lots of little things have to go right for the scoring team, and the team that conceded can always find something that can be done better. And with the benefit of hindsight, some of these little decisions always look worse than they do in real time. I think instead of blaming individuals, we should instead give credit to Albirex for what they did. If you look at how they played in the entirety of the second half, and how they responded after going behind, I think immense credit should be given to them. Let’s put it this way – when the Sailors overcame a 2-0 deficit at Bishan Stadium earlier this season against Albirex, did we credit it more to our own efforts, or did we pick out Albirex’s mistakes leading up to those goals? Yup. Exactly. Look at the above screencap. It’s the 79th minute, and yet they have so much confidence to take the game to us. I have highlighted in pink five Albirex players, while there is another one to the right that is not captured, hence I used a pink arrow to indicate where he is. Lesser teams might think – what if we lose the ball here? We would have committed 6 people into the penalty area or around it, and there are only 3 outfielders left to defend it. But not Albirex. They pushed up, knowing that it was essential that their right-back stays all the way wide, so as to force LCS to spread out their defenders. If the right-back didn’t make such a deep run, then Nur Adam would be able to tuck in, and

Well, I could not be more wrong in my pre-match preview. The only thing I got right was that Hakeme Yazid is a superstar and we should be wary of him. However, I under-estimated the Bruneian outfit. Yes, there was a red card, and it is very tough playing with 10 men, but I felt that even in the period before Bailey Wright was sent off, DPMM were the slightly better team. It was a very eventful game, and unfortunately, it was just a game where I felt everything that could go wrong, went wrong for us. The crowd (myself included) was incensed by Jansen Foo, and so not only will this article talk about the players on both sides, but it will definitely also touch on Jansen’s performance. Tiredness + Sloppiness I am gonna sound like a broken recorder soon, but I feel that some rotation was badly needed. Our players have played many games without changes and I think it really showed – as simple passes went astray and the touches were not as assured as they usually were. We also did not press with the same ferocity that we did against the likes of Tanjong Pagar and Young Lions. All 3 goals could be said to have been sloppy, while the red card was a direct result of some wayward passing. It was something that sparked a bit of a debate in the SailorFanTalk Telegram chat, with some fans thinking that our depth options are not good enough, or that our players are professional athletes and should be able to handle a game every 3 to 4 days. In the end, we did a poll and the results were clear in that the majority felt the squad could have done with a bit of freshening up. Especially with Brunei DPMM having played just 3 days ago, I think a little bit of freshness may just have been enough to tip the scales more in our favour. As it was, tiredness did take its toll, and we lacked the sharpness necessary to break down DPMM. To make matters worse, Diego had to be subbed off in the second half, and Coach Ranko said it was because he was carrying a small injury and he wanted to rest him for the weekend’s match against Albirex. We hope he’ll be fine. For supporters who said that our depth options are not good enough, I think I would humbly disagree with them. Someone like Zulqarnaen Suzliman (Mamat) in particular would perhaps have been perfect for this game. Hafiz Nor’s tricky situation re: potentially picking up his 4th yellow card meant it was a perfect opportunity for him to get some minutes and inject some freshness into the backline. For 2 of the goals, I think we were undone by a lack of pace in the backline, and perhaps if Mamat had played, his energy and pace might have given us a better chance at defending those goals. Of course, it calls back to mind his monster defensive performance against Geylang Intl some months back, where we had this to say – Also, while chasing a game and with 10 men, would Haiqal Pashia and Rusyaidi Salime not have been good enough options to bring on? As it was, Mamat was given 10min of gametime, while Haiqal and Rusyaidi were not given any gametime. Once it is clear that the match was not gonna be won, it might have made sense to try and preserve some legs for the Albirex game. If there is such little trust in the bench options, and an unwillingness to use them in any capacity, I do worry. In the short term, I worry about our chances against Albirex this weekend, in the medium term I worry about our squad rotation taking into account the Spurs game (a separate article will be written about this), and in the longer term I worry about how our squad will cope with all the AFC Champions League games. Missed chances Sigh. Maxime’s missed penalty, the 1-2 in front of goal where Maxime squared to Diego and Diego’s shot was cleared off the line. That one conjured up images of our goal against Daegu. The score was still 1-0 then by the way, so had that gone in, it would have been 1-1 and Bailey might not have got sent off. Maxime and Diego have saved us plenty of times this season, so let’s not dwell on this – they are entitled to off-days. Shit happens. I wonder if this is the only game this season where we have scored but Maxime and Diego did not contribute to the goal tally (whether with a goal or an assist). DPMM were very, very, very good Sometimes when doing these post-match thoughts, I tend to fixate quite a bit on how badly the Sailors played, and what we could have done differently. This match is perhaps a little different because I thought that DPMM were excellent. Besides Hakeme in attack, I thought Farshad Noor (Afghan national team captain) was brilliant in midfield, winning 9 of 15 of his duels, and making 5 interceptions. His defensive work was really good, and he popped up everywhere to help put small fires out before they could do any damage. He could even count himself unlucky not to have scored, with a late effort that hit the bar. Elsewhere in the team, Helmi down the left was also a real menace all game, with his fresh legs allowing him to not only make offensive runs, but also help in DPMM’s defensive efforts. This is what rotation can do for you – Helmi only played one half in the previous game. Hakeme was a livewire all night and it was clear that he was instructed to try to beat the offside trap at every opportunity. He would linger in an offside position near our defensive line, and then make a sharp darting run back onside (either in

I am writing this after watching Albirex drop points to DPMM Brunei, but I will try to ignore that in giving my post-match thoughts for our 4-0 victory over Young Lions. At half-time the score was 0-0, and we suffered a major scare when Zharfan Rohaizad had to pull off an outstanding double save from first Harhys Stewart, and then Syahadat Masnawi, to prevent us going in 1-0 down at the break. Considering that Albirex took barely a few minutes to open up Young Lions in the previous games, there were more than a few nerves at half-time. Our Sailors had to improve in the second half, and they did. In the end, it was very, very comfortable – let’s take a look at the stats. Our dominance was never in doubt in the 2nd half. But what caused the deadlock at half-time? Here are some thoughts about the game. The C-word Prior to the game, we said in our preview that all the stats pointed to a comfortable Sailors victory, and the only thing that could potentially stumble us was complacency. So it was pretty interesting that when we spoke to Nur Adam post-game, he mentioned that perhaps the Sailors were a bit complacent in the first half, and took the Young Lions a bit lightly. We seemed to struggle to break Young Lions down, and when we did, we did not take our chances. Adam Swandi’s diving header went just wide, and he then saw his half-volley smack off the post as well, so we did come really close. Problem was, we also looked vulnerable on the counter and we perhaps lacked the control of the game that we had come to expect after two very successful outings against Hougang and Tanjong Pagar with the new formation. But was it due to complacency? It’s of course impossible to tell if the players subconsciously took Young Lions a little easy, or if they were trying to save some energy in the tank, knowing that just a few days later, they would be playing DPMM Brunei. However, one thing that surprised me when the starting lineup was announced was that there was zero rotation – an unchanged team from our big win against Tanjong Pagar. I thought Coach Ranko may have been tempted to switch things up given that we were facing the basement-dwellers, but perhaps his reason for not doing that was precisely so as not to send the message to his players that Young Lions are an “easy” team to beat. In any case, the best lessons to learn are the ones where you didn’t have to pay a price for, and Zharfan’s double-save ensured that we went in at the break goalless, rather than 1 goal down. It was a warning that did not draw any blood, and one that allowed the coaching staff to make some changes at half-time to give us more of an attacking threat. This was also referenced by captain Hariss in his post-match chat with us. Nur Adam’s Increasing Attacking Threat In a first half where we struggled to create as many chances as we usually do, Nur Adam was quite conservative in his play, as he did not look to overlap as much. In this new system, he is part of a back 3 sometimes in build-up, so more of the risk-taking will be taken by Hafiz Nor on the opposite flank. However, in the second half, he was often seen further forward, and it was this that led to our first goal, as he ran deep into enemy territory (see red arrow) to support Adam Swandi. He took the ball in his stride, and his cutback created chaos as first Shawal put it on target, and then the deflection fell kindly for Maxime to coolly side-foot into the back of the net. This was a run that was not made as often in the first half, so credit both to Nur Adam, but also Coach Ranko for making this tactical change. Although he did not pick up an assist in this game, this chance he created eventually led to the opening of the floodgates. This, coupled with the fact that he has 2 assists from his previous 2 games, means that we are finally seeing Nur Adam play into some real form, and what a crucial time for him to be doing it. In our post-match chat with him, he mentioned that he would like to get a goal soon, but also joked that Maxime always tells him to stay back and let him attack alone. Which brings us to the next point… Magnificent Maxime How many superlatives can you throw at this beautiful Belgian man? It is utterly insane the numbers he’s putting up. He’s the Nikola Jokic of the Singapore Premier League. You stop him from scoring, he’s gonna get an assist. You stop him from passing, he’s gonna get a goal. What can you do as a defender? Last night was his first hattrick for the Sailors – a stat that made me stop and think in disbelief. It just seems so crazy that he hasn’t scored a hattrick yet because we have seen him score goal after goal. The reason for that is he tends to score in twos rather than threes. The club also announced that with his hattrick, he is now the all-time top-scoring Sailor. Just amazing. But it’s not just goals is it? Why I called him the Nikola Jokic of our league is because he isn’t afraid to share the ball as well. How often do you see this in any league? He is on course to reach more than 20 goals and 20 assists in the same season – a very difficult achievement. The club also put out some other stats – Maxime’s 18-goal haul is his best-ever goal tally in a season, beating his previous record of 17 goals with Club Brugge in the 2012/2013 season. Friday’s three-goal haul