abdul rasaq – SailorFanTalk

[Post-Match Thoughts] Not Our Best But Some Positives

3 Comments / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

I usually try to wait for Instat to come out with some stats about the game before giving you my thoughts, but those jokers are taking their own sweet time, so here goes. In the preview article, I spoke about the need to capitalise on Tampines slipping up against Balestier Khalsa. We did just that, getting the crucial three points. However, I think the performance left much to be desired. We were ultimately bailed out by two free-kicks from Maxime Lestienne (who else) and a great defensive display by Zulqarnaen Suzliman. Here’s a few post-match thoughts. Maybe I’ll start with the positives and then slowly work towards the negatives. Maxime Lestienne The dude’s a machine. What else can I say? 8 goals and 8 assists in 9 games is pretty mental. That’s 1.78 goal contributions per game. Imagine lining up against a player knowing that statistically, he is gonna score/assist about 2 goals – that must be kinda demoralising. But it’s what we’ve come to expect from our brilliant Belgian. If Forrest is reading this, please sign him up. Renew his contract for x number of years, where x is 55 or 78 or something. We want him here forever. Not only is he a real asset to the team, he is also someone that excites us fans. Speaking of someone who excites fans … Nathan Mao There has been much buzz online about whether Nathan’s 5 minutes cameo against Tampines Rovers was a publicity stunt, and whether he deserved those 5 minutes. I mean for me, I didn’t think it was that deep, really. The game was lost, and there was no harm giving a few minutes to a prodigy from the academy, just to allow him to experience an SPL game. If I were to be cynical, maybe it was to distract the supporters, give them something else to get excited about on a day when we played at a level so far below Tampines Rovers. If you wanna relive the match and how it played out, be my guest, check out our depressing post-match thoughts where we spoke about Nathan as well. So, Nathan not only played against Geylamg. he started. In so doing, he became the youngest-ever player to start a SPL game at 15 years and 42 days old. Previously, the record holder was Raoul Suhaimi for Young Lions (15 years and 239 days old). Not only did Nathan start, he played an hour. Of course, this is in part due to the U23 rule where a U23 player must be played, and most of them are at the SEA Games. We referenced this in our preview article as well. However, it must be said that the U23 player can be removed at half-time, and we have seen clubs in the league do that, LCS included last season. It is to Nathan’s credit that he stayed on past half-time. In the first half, Nathan looked brave with the ball and in a half that was crying out for some attacking verve and impetus, something for the supporters to get excited about, Nathan was arguably the only one to provide it. Trying my best to analyse his performance without the “oh-he’s-15-years-old” lens, I genuinely feel like he did very well. There were some moments where he brought the fans off their seats – for example, 3:25 onwards in this brilliantly-shot video. Throughout the time he was on the pitch, he never looked out of place, and that’s the greatest compliment I can pay him given he is at such an early point in his nascent football career. It would be easy for someone making his first professional start at that age to just take the safe option all the time, but he mixed it up, sometimes opting for the easy pass, but sometimes also running with the ball and beating his man, getting fouls. Very encouraging to watch, and he was given a warm reception from the fans when he was subbed off. Even our former CEO had nice things to say about him in the post-match interview. Keep it up, Nathan! Zulqarnaen Suzliman (Mamat) A monster game from a full-back who we expected huge things from ever since he came back from Young Lions last year. His performances for the national team and in the league actually got me quite excited when he came back, but unfortunately due to injury, I think it took a long while before we saw the true Mamat. This was a monster performance and a vital one, because in defence, it looked like we were so vulnerable to the counter-attack but Mamat was able to bail us out on three occasions. First, he blocked a shot on goal off the line, and he then denied Yushi Yamaya on two separate occasions with determined last-ditch tackles. Don’t take my word for it – the club has put together a nice little compilation of those moments. Check it out here and decide for yourself – We spoke to Mamat after the game, and he showed humility and said he’s happy he saved the team from conceding three goals, and that it was just his defensive instincts kicking in. Aside from contributing in defence, he also went up the other end and got fouled for the crucial freekick that Maxime scored to equalise. It came as a result of the team collectively picking up the pace in the second half, and Mamat tried to run beyond the defence to get onto a clipped pass over the top. This led to the defender fouling him to impede his progress. In a match where Geylang were content to shuffle from side to side in a deep defensive block and attack on the counter, it was vital that our wide players (including the fullbacks) tried to get behind the defence and outnumber the Geylang defenders. Thank you Mamat for your contribution this game! Substitutions of Hafiz Nor and Shawal Anuar I mentioned above that collectively

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[Preview] Must Capitalise on Tampines Slipping Up

1 Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

You know I don’t actually hate Tampines Rovers or anything, but it’s always funny to see teams slip up in a bad way when they are involved in the title race with your team. Nothing personal, just business. Tampines have been impressive this season, but in their last three games, they have not reached anywhere near the high standards they set for themselves. No goals from open play in 2 of the matches, defensively looking a bit suspect, Boris Kopitovic is the saddest-looking person despite scoring 3 goals in 3 games. All penalties, of course, and he even tried his best to miss one of them. All of this is well and good, and is very funny, and it makes me smile, and it makes the world a better place, but it all will mean nothing though, if the Sailors cannot capitalise on Sunday night. Had Tampines won last night, as they should have, if you believe the bookmakers and pundits (Balestier were at 10-1 odds to win), then they would have opened up a 7-point gap on us with 1 game in hand. As it stands though, they are a much more catchable 4 points away from us. If we win the game in hand, we go to 1 point below them. Not ideal of course, given the disparity between our resources and their resources, but also not fatal, and with time and remaining games to catch up to them. We come up against Geylang though – who are a bit of a bogey team for us. In the last 5 games against Geylang, we have lost 2 and drawn 1. Not good enough at all. The manner of the losses as well was deeply depressing. If you remember those games from last season, we were comprehensively outplayed and Geylang just looked like they were much more up for the fight than we were. But no matter, different season, different outcome perhaps. We swept Geylang aside easily 3-0 barely two months ago, and we will be looking for a repeat. Here are a few key points that I think will decide the game. Who Starts as our U23 Player? With our U23 players all at the SEA Games, we cannot count on any of Abdul Rasaq, Bill or Nur Adam to start the game on Sunday. As such, we are looking at Danish Qayyum as the most likely starter. He has played only 4 minutes this season, coming on as a late sub for us in our season opener against Tanjong Pagar. He came on at left midfield, which is the position that he played most last season with Young Lions. To be honest, I am surprised we have not seen more of him , especially in games where we have a comfortable lead. Anaqi Ismit is also U23, but I believe he is currently injured still, and so is not an option. Another option who may start is Nathan Mao, I guess? After all the fanfare of his 5-min cameo which sparked a lot of debate from people who said that it was just a PR stunt, or that he “did not deserve to break the record”, it would be a strong show of support for him and his burgeoning talent if he were to start in this game. I find this to be unlikely though, given that attacking midfield is an important part of our build-up play, and if he starts, he will come up directly against some really seasoned and good defensive players, such as Rio Sakuma, Takahiro Tezuka, and Josh Pereira. But who knows, maybe a half for him to show what he can do, and then replace him with an experienced player for the second half? One can dream! Zharfan’s Key Role in this Game Some things don’t need to be said – for example, I don’t need to tell you that Maxime Lestienne is a key player for us. He has the most goals (6) and most assists (8) for us, and 14 goal contributions in the first round of the SPL season is insane. He seems to have taken the Player of the Year snub quite personally. Which is good for us. But some other things need to be said. Zharfan will play a key role in this game, and he must be on top form. I’ve mentioned this before in a previous article, but it is pretty worrying that Zharfan has had to make so many saves. We even spoke to him about it in this little interview. A title-contending team should not be giving up that many shots, even if they are from speculative range. This match should see this pattern of him having to make saves continue, because Geylang is a team that loves taking shots. The stats above are taken from spl.sg, and you can see that Yushi Yamaya and Vincent Bezecourt seem to have a shoot-on-sight policy. 53 shots, and of those, 22 are on target. While a good number of these shots have been from long range, they are also getting their shots on target, as can be seen from this table below. Anything could happen from a shot on target, and I hope we can slowly but surely start to work on limiting our opponents and stopping them from taking shots. But if the shots are gonna come in, then Zharfan, we’re gonna need him to have a good game. Keep it simple, no spills, no thrills for us. Who Starts in Attack? With Kodai Tanaka out for the season, and Abdul Rasaq away at the SEA Games, we have only two realistic options when it comes to centre-forward. The first option is Bernie, while the other is Shawal. Bernie has not set the world alight so far, it’s fair to say. And of course, this should be expected given his injury troubles and how long he has been away from professional football. He has shown his physicality thus far, but the sharpness of

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[Post-Match Thoughts] Five-Star Performance (Hougang 0 LCS 5)

2 Comments / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

Life is much easier, and writing is much easier when the Sailors win, and win in such fashion. If you thought that this game was a walk in the park (which was something we suggested in our preview), then you’d be both wrong and right. To help illustrate that, let’s take a look at the stats. Some very interesting stats. You would be forgiven for thinking that the Sailors were lucky to win the game if you look at the respective xG achieved by each team. However, that came down to two reasons – more patient chance creation, and better individual quality. More Patient Chance Creation 2.5 xG vs 2 xG suggests that Hougang created nearly as good chances as the Sailors did – however one look at the Shots stat changes that thought. Hougang took 25 shots, mostly speculative, while the Sailors were a bit more patient with their possession, and took only 15 shots. If you do some very basic back-of-the-napkin math, Hougang clocked in at 0.08xG per shot taken, while the Sailors clocked in at 0.17xG per shot taken – so each Sailors shot was twice as likely to make it into the back of the net. That probably accounts for the Sailors’ high passing stat as well. As much as Hougang are a possession-hungry team (this was only their 2nd out of 8 games where they have less possession than their opponents), the Sailors played more passes than Hougang, perhaps in a bid to fashion better chances for their forwards. I will now show you a comparison of Sailors shots against Hougang shots, with a particular emphasis on shots that are 0.20xG and above. Hougang’s shots above 0.20xG LCS’s shots above 0.20xG (Diego’s goal + 2 Abdul Rasaq goals) In fact, if you look at Hougang’s shot chart, 14 of their 25 shots came from non-threatening areas of the pitch. Of these 14 shots, only 4 made it on target. Perhaps with a little more patience, Hougang could have fashioned slightly better shooting opportunities. That being said – Coach Risto and his staff must be analysing the tape to see if they can limit the number of shots being taken. Even if these shots are from non-threatening range, how many times have we seen bad things happen just by virtue of the fact that the ball is in dangerous areas? A wicked deflection off a defender leaving a keeper stranded, an unsighted goalkeeper not seeing a shot till it’s too late because of the mass of bodies in front of him, an unlucky bounce off an uneven pitch (thank goodness TPY Stadium is no more), a save that is parried out to another attacker – the possibilities are endless. To achieve true domination and to allow for less variables in the game, we should be trying to limit our opponents from taking such shots. Looking at the graphic above, 11 of those shots were in a decent area, and 3 were on target. On another day, some of these will go in, or lead to major chaos. Better Individual Quality SPL Twitter, SPH, and the club’s official website all led with similar headlines – Maxime Lestienne stole the show. It’d take a real fool or contrarian to argue that Maxime didn’t have a good game. 2 goals, 2 assists, all of which where he looked a class apart from the rest on the pitch. He kicked things off with a stunning free kick, and wrapped things up with an unerring finish into the far corner after blitzing past the Hougang defence. In between, he was involved in what is becoming a trademark cutback for Abdul Rasaq to finish, and also a move straight from the futsal courts where Diego used him to hold up the ball and then release to him for an easy finish in the box. It’s now 5 goals, and 8 assists in 7 games for our Belgian superstar – the only game where he did not register a goal or an assist is the 4-0 defeat to Albirex where we were reduced to ten men for the majority of the game. Even opposition fans will concede that Maxime is a class apart, and this ties in to the point made earlier. I showed you the graphic with 3 of our goals being 0.20xG and above. Well, the other 2 goals were below 0.20xG and they were Maxime’s goals. One was the beautiful freekick that had Zaiful Nizam grasping at thin air, while the other was pretty underrated if you ask me. Media outlets described it as a “neat finish”, but I don’t think that does justice to the difficulty of the finish, especially given that Zaiful is a very accomplished keeper. Maxime basically put it into the only part of the goal where Zaiful would not be able to reach, and that finish, particularly while running at pace, is not an easy one. But the night wasn’t just about Maxime. Shoutout also to Zharfan, Abdul Rasaq, and maybe a surprise one in this list, Anu. Let me elaborate Zharfan In the post-match reactions, I spoke to a fan and assumed that he would name Maxime as Man of the Match, given he notched 2 goals and 2 assists. However, I was caught by surprise a little as he named Zharfan as his pick for Man of the Match. And that got me thinking – while the score was 5-0, games really can turn on moments. Hougang is a team low on confidence, but what would have happened if they managed to get one or two goals when the Sailors had not raced away to a 3-goal lead yet? That might have turned the game, and if you look back at the game, Zharfan did pull off some crucial saves, not least the double save from Sahil who absolutely thwacked the ball at goal from a narrow angle, which was followed up by a good parry when Gabriel Quak tried to curl

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A Song in our Hearts

1 Comment / Daily Musings, Player Profiles / Eddy Hirono

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

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