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[PREVIEW] Albirex Niigata (S) vs LCS – Time to End The Streak

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Before every game, we will do a short preview and share some of our thoughts, and also predictions. Starting this season, all 3 of us at SailorFanTalk will give you our predictions, and we will track these over the course of the year. 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). You’ve heard it time and again from local football podcasters, rival clubs’ fans, press, etc. They say it in a variety of ways – some with a smirk, some matter-of-factly, some even with a sense of condescension, as if they had anything to do with the mighty Albirex team keeping up this impressive record. I am, of course, referring to the fact that LCS has still not beaten Albirex in competitive action (except in the Community Shield). It’s getting annoying to keep hearing this and while there is never a good time to play 5-time SPL champions Albirex, tonight’s game does fill me with some hope. Maybe it is because I am an optimist, maybe it is because I am an LCS fan. Or maybe I am just deluded – but if you’re still reading this, maybe you can see if you agree with me or you think I am grasping at straws. Albirex is a new team This is not a new problem, of course. I liken Albirex to a fearsome snake. Every year they shed 95% of their team, but somehow they still possess the ability to be so deadly, so dominant. Like a snake. Except snakes aren’t polite and do a cringeworthy dance with their supporters after every game. Ok ignore me – I am trying to generate some rivalry here. It is so difficult to hate Albirex. Their community outreach efforts are amazing, they have a fun academy dedicated to cheerleading, they play some lovely football, and most of all, they are always humble. Ok so maybe they are not like snakes at all. I digress. Back to the point about them being a new team, Albirex won the title last season but you may remember that they struggled at first. Out of the first 6 games, they dropped points in 4 (!) games, losing to Tanjong Pagar, and drawing with LCS, Hougang, and 10-man Geylang. This is unsurprising as unlike the other clubs who usually at least retain at least half a team, Albirex almost always have to start from scratch. In fact, it is amazing that they can always put up a strong showing, but that is probably testament to how strong the football scene is in Japan, such that even talent from their tertiary institutions and lower league clubs can thrive here. Like us, Albirex have already played two games this season, and recorded positive results in both. 3-0 vs Hougang in the Community Shield was followed by another 3-0 vs Young Lions in the League. However, that was about 2 weeks ago, and of course, the hope is that their team have not had a run of games to gel with each other yet. The form of Maxime Lestienne Maxime has started the season like a house on fire. 3 assists in the first game against Tanjong Pagar was followed by a good team goal against DPMM Brunei. Against DPMM, Maxime was unlucky not to add to his goal tally. A fizzing cross by Hafiz Nor was turned onto the post by him when it looked easier to score, while later in the game, he skipped through the whole DPMM midfield to fire a shot headed for the bottom corner, only for the keeper to deny him by pushing it against the post. He also came close to adding to his assists tally, while it was his searching cross that found Diego Lopes to head across goal for Kodai to find the crucial 2nd goal. He was a menace all night, and there is no reason that he can’t repeat the trick tonight. Crosses from Christopher van Huizen In Christopher van Huizen, Maxime has a very able ally down the left side of defence. We assume that Chris will start because Nur Adam’s injury means that the most likely U21 player to start will be Bill Mahmadou at rightback. While Chris is not the most robust of defenders, his ability to cross with both feet accurately and with pace make him a very valuable weapon down the left. As you can see from the Ball Touches Map from the last game against DPMM, Chris is not shy to get deep into enemy territory to support and/or offering a crossing option. This may mean that opponents will find it harder to double up on Maxime, because he will then be able to lay the ball back for Chris to put a dangerous cross into the box. With Kodai in the box, it has the potential to be a deadly combi as well, given Kodai’s aerial prowess. He has not had an assist yet, but mark my words, it will come. Who to look out for – Riku Fukashiro Of course, this preview would be too one-sided if I didn’t also highlight what we should fear from Albirex. Diminutive forward Riku has caught the eye despite not starting either of Albirex’s games. He has been a 2nd half substitute both against Hougang and against Young Lions. In that time, he has dazzled supporters with his nifty footwork, and sharp dribbling skills. He was a thorn in the side for both opponents and even managed a goal against Hougang. Even though he is a new player, there was already such an air of expectancy everytime he picked up the ball in or around the left touchline. He did not score against the Young Lions, but he was close – hitting the post barely 4 minutes after he came on. Watch him do his thing tomorrow –

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[Tactical Analysis] Room For Improvement (LCS 3 DPMM Brunei 1)

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The following tactical analysis is from Zach Wu, who’s not a Sailors fan, but we just thought it would be good for someone without rose-tinted glasses to analyse the tactics of our games. We hope to make this a regular column so that we can better appreciate what is going on in our games from a tactical perspective. It was a potential title decider just 2 weeks into the new season. However, both teams were far from being in title-challenging form, be it LCS’s new-look side settling in or DPMM playing in a far less competitive league of late. First Half LCS set up in their customary 4231, being relatively unchanged, bar Anu starting at centre back. Nur Adam, however, was replaced relatively early with a dislocated shoulder, so Van Huizen moved over to left back while Bill Mamadou filled in at right back. DPMM interestingly started in a 352/532 system not too dissimilar to the formation employed in their title-winning campaign in 2019 (image below). They were without one of their foreigners in Josip Balic, and Coach Adrian Pennock highlighted him as a key miss. Finding the free players Naturally, the free players for the 4231 team against a 532 team are the fullbacks because it is a 2v1 on the wings (winger and fullback (4231) vs one wingback (532)). However, just playing the ball to the fullbacks alone would make the team one-dimensional and the buildup flank-orientated (i.e. the ball only sticks to the wings). Here, seconds later from the previous image where the ball was on the left, LCS are able to find the far-sided fullback Bill Mamadou (pink) while the DPMM block is shifting over, allowing him time and space to drive the ball forward. After running with the ball a few meters, the DPMM midfield is slow to move across while the defence is too deep, creating a big space (red) in the centre. Unfortunately, Diego is too deep (pink). If LCS had been able to work the ball to Diego in this red area, he could do significant damage with the ball, given his ability. DPMM not up to speed Generally, DPMM seemed to be adapting to the game especially in the first half, even if they were moving slowly across and not compact – but the lead-up to the opening goal really summed up their lethargic approach. Here, LCS win a throw-in and take it quickly having seen DPMM’s right wingback caught out of position. Diego (red) spots this and makes a dart into the space. The covering centre-back is slow to respond and this leads to the cutback which Lestienne finishes. This is a routine error, with no one stopping LCS taking the quick throw in. In fact, even the seasoned #8 Hendra Azam is there but not even looking at the ball when the throw is taken. If DPMM want to go for the title again, such routine mistakes must not be repeated. While Coach Adrian Pennock told Eddy in a post-match interview that the players had thought the throw-in should have been awarded to them, it is still no excuse as players are taught to always play to the referee’s calls and be alert to what is going on around them. Second Half Luxury Players Switching Off Lestienne and Diego Lopes have been lauded for their plaudits with the ball, but off the ball, their contribution at times have been questionable especially later on in games. Here, LCS has just given the ball away. There are two pictures above and if you look at the first, what is happening there is the ball is attempted to be played into the box by the DPMM player. Lestienne sees four LCS players converging onto it, and gambles, by starting to angle his body forward and slowly jog forward in anticipation of a counter-attack if the ball can break kindly for an LCS player. This is either clever play, or coach’s instructions to gamble in such situations. However, when it becomes clear that there is some defending to be done, you will see that Tanaka and Lestienne have in fact continued advancing forward (observe the differences in their positions, and how they are now closer to the centre-circle), and make no attempt to close down space or put themselves closer to the action. Lopes is also watching the action instead of tucking in to be in a position to react to a potential loose ball.   With Tanaka also upfront, this leaves LCS with just 7 outfielders to defend. This forces Lionel to step out to close the man down – far out from his preferred central defensive position (see below). He is not able to intercept, and the ball is swung to DPMM’s right. It eventually reaches Voronkov who forces a good save out of Zharfan. On another day, this could have been a goal. Akin to the Neymar-Mbappe-Messi situation at PSG, Vidakovic has to find a solution to ensure their marquee players do not cost the team defensively. Lack of control (and options) As the half wore on, both sides were starting to tire but with both sides pushing forward for a goal (be it Sailors for the third and DPMM for an equalizer), it remained a very open game. With Hariss the only defensive minded midfielder protecting the backline, and Hami naturally more attack-minded, the midfield was quite empty at times. Unfortunately given the centre-back situation, Anu had to be played in defense and there was no natural defensive midfielder on the bench. Perhaps Rusyaidi Salime could have come on to help plug the gap in midfield? While he isn’t a pure defensive midfielder, he posted pretty high defensive stats last season, and could have done a job in midfield. Conclusion As a whole, LCS generally played well, creating 2.1 xG against 1.27 of DPMM, especially factoring in the mistake by Zharfan. This was an improvement compared to the TPU game where they let in 1.78 xG against a

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[Preview] LCS v Brunei DPMM – Unknown Quantity

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Before every game, we will do a short preview and share some of our thoughts, and also predictions. Starting this season, all 3 of us at SailorFanTalk will give you our predictions, and we will track these over the course of the year. 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). If you have been following SPL preview shows, or talking to any ardent SPL fans, you would be sick of hearing this by now – “Brunei DPMM is an unknown quantity”. Heck, even Hafiz Nor said so in his pre-match preview, when he stated that the team “don’t really know what to expect from [DPMM]“. Sick of it or not, it’s because it’s true. We simply do not know what we should expect from them because they have not been in proper competitive action for a very long time. DPMM Brunei’s Absence from “Proper” Competition While Covid-19 ravaged the world, Brunei adopted a very strict stance on international travel, and thus the Singapore Premier League has not seen them since 2020. They played one game then, before the league was suspended. Even when the league resumed, they were unable to travel to Singapore to fulfil their fixtures, so they continued to sit out the remainder of the 2020 season. 2021 saw the same happen – they could not travel here, and thus could not take part in the SPL. However, they did play a handful of games in their Bruneian domestic league before it was suspended again due to Covid-19. 2022 saw them take part in Bruneian domestic competition. Once again, due to Covid-19, the league was abandoned, and thus they only played in the Brunei FA Cup. In this tournament, they recorded crazy scorelines such as 18-0, 8-0, 15-0, and won every game, sweeping all before them on their way to winning the Cup. It is not an understatement to say that this presented little to no challenge for them. It is certainly no replacement for proper competitive football, whatever your thoughts are on the quality of our SPL. It is perhaps also futile if we try to analyse their results from 2019 or 2020 (before Covid-19) to see if we can predict how they will fare later on against us, because it is too long ago. Maybe pre-season would be a better place to look? DPMM Brunei’s Pre-Season From their Instagram page, it seems that Brunei DPMM went to Thailand for pre-season and suffered a couple of defeats. Nothing too surprising or concerning given the quality of the Thai teams. They lost 2-0 to Chonburi FC (Thai T1 team), and 3-0 to Nakhonpathum United (Thai T2 team). They then went back to Brunei and beat a local team 3-0. There is perhaps not a lot you can glean from these results given that we have no idea who played for Chonburi or Nakhonpathum United. If those Thai teams played their full teams with their first-teamers (unlikely), then DPMM is probably going to ruffle a few feathers in the SPL this season. The SPL teams did not have a good time when they went abroad, so if you do some back-of-the-napkin calculations and deductions, DPMM not getting thrashed means they are better than our teams. (Yes, we are desperate to try to get some conclusions out of the little nuggets of information we have). Andrey Varankow How can we do a DPMM preview piece without talking about Andrey Varankow? In the picture you see Varankow (or Voronkov, there are so many spellings it’s insane), with the other 3 foreigners who are part of DPMM’s squad this season. Varankow scored 23 goals in 24 appearances the last time he played a full season in Singapore. Yes, those are stats you see in FIFA or Football Manager. Unsurprisingly, he finished as top-scorer by some margin, and DPMM won the league. Whenever he played, he was a constant threat, and Singaporean defences just did not manage to get a handle on him. However, and this is the big “however” – that was 4 years ago, when Varankow was 30. He is now 34. And it’s not just the age. He was out of contract in 2022, which means he did not even play in DPMM Brunei’s successful FA Cup campaign. His last football action was in the shortened Brunei Super League campaign in 2021, where he scored 23 goals in 6 games – once again highlighting the point that playing domestically in Brunei really isn’t competitive at all. He may struggle to find his feet in the league, and that’s certainly what we LCS fans will be hoping for later today. A quick side-note on the other foreigners – they all come with pretty good pedigree, having played in leagues such as the Greek Superleague and the Uzbek league. However, I will not pretend to know more about these players. We will just have to see how good they are for ourselves. Conclusion Given that DPMM are a bit of an unknown quantity and the bulk of their team is made up of the Brunei national team, who did not look great at the AFF ME Cup a few months back, and then factoring in their lack of practice in a competitive sense, we see the Sailors edging this one. Score Prediction As mentioned above, this will be a continuing feature as the season goes on. Joseph, Ethan, and myself will 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: 3-1 Sailors Ethan’s prediction: 2-1 Sailors Joseph’s prediction: 2-2 Draw Written by Eddy Hirono [UPDATE]:

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[Tactical Analysis] Hami Hype (LCS 3 Tanjong Pagar 1)

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The following tactical analysis is from Zach Wu, who’s not a Sailors fan, but we just thought it would be good for someone without rose-tinted glasses to analyse the tactics of our games. We hope to make this a regular column so that we can better appreciate what is going on in our games from a tactical perspective. The opener of the 2023 season was certainly much anticipated, with both sides arguably adding upgrades to their squad. A rematch of opening day 2020, but the result could not have been anymore different. Tanjong Pagar approach The approach from the Jaguars was simple – sit deep in a mid to low block and take advantage of any opportunities on the break. There was some interesting use of players by Hasrin Jailani. He chose to double up against Lestienne’s threat on their right, moving two former LCS players (and two natural full backs) Naqiuddin and Tajeli onto Lestienne’s side. Elsewhere, Faizal Roslan a natural right footed centreback was forced to LWB (left wingback), Blake at left wing/left forward while youngster Azim Akbar (whom we have seen played as a right midfielder and is listed as such on transfermarkt.com) started at centre midfield, paired in a pivot with Mirko Sugic. Build-up issues While Tanjong Pagar are a direct team, being ALWAYS direct would present some issues. It is interesting to note that last season, Tanjong Pagar was the most direct team in the league, as they made an average of 40 long passes per match. Going direct all the time means your play becomes predictable, and you lose possession of the ball far too easily. Here, Pedro Dias on the ball has no options in the build-up stage. There are no midfielders that are free and within a reasonable passing distance from him (red box) and hence is forced to go long. The LCS players on the pitch would have recognized that there are no immediate passing options for Pedro Dias and thus would squeeze up on him, making it more difficult for Pedro Dias to send an accurate long ball while also being more prepared to win the second ball after the long ball is played. While it is okay to go direct, there has to be a plan to keep the ball on the ground when necessary, in order to ensure your play does not become predictable. Tanjong Pagar did not have this back-up plan in mind. LCS approach With Shawal, Anu, Pedro, Izwan the big names out for the Sailors, they started in their usual 4-2-3-1 shape with the expected names. However, there were interesting tweaks that Vidakovic made to the team that made them far more effective. Numerical advantage Vidakovic’s gameplan to pin Tanjong Pagar’s back 5 with LCS’s front 4, leaving 6 LCS players in a 4-2 (from their 4-2-3-1) to shape up against 5 Tanjong Pagar players. With this numerical advantage, it made it difficult for Tanjong Pagar to press LCS, allowing LCS to shift the ball from side to side easily. 1 in, 1 out While still utilizing the 4-2-3-1 shape, Vidakovic’s changes were subtle but effective. Instead of pushing both fullbacks high up the pitch (as we like to think of attacking football), Vidakovic kept both deep.  This is the key part. While keeping both deep, he kept one infield (like an inverted fullback) while the other would be outfield (like a traditional fullback). Here (image above), Nur Adam (pink) has the ball on the touchline. CvH (Chris van Huizen) (red) anticipates the ball is being played back to the other centrebacks and moves infield to try and link up with his other defenders instead of hugging the touchline on his side. Likewise here (image above), Nur Adam (pink) is holding the width on the touchline while CvH(red) is coming infield. This “one in, one out” is also applicable here. Lestienne (orange) is holding the width down the touchline with the ball. Nur Adam(blue) sees the space ahead of him and makes an underlapping run infield (blue arrow) to create space for Lestienne. With this simple principle of one infield and one outfield, be it fullback-fullback or fullback-winger, this creates staggering that disrupts the opponents’ shape and allows LCS to progress the ball forward better. Hami reborn Hami was a player reborn, having been underutilized last season under various coaches, he delivered a commanding assured display. While small in stature, he was incredibly composed on the ball and was a perfect fit for Vidakovic’s more patient ball-heavy approach, especially in the Sailors’ own third. Hami left the pitch on 81min, but by then he had made 53 passes with a 92% passing accuracy (highest on the pitch), a productive day in the office. With the departure of Shahdan Sulaiman, Vidakovic filled the void by fielding Hariss back in his usual midfield position. With the added defensive stability by the more mobile Hariss (and having spent the past 1.5 seasons largely in defense honing his game), Hami was able to play a box-to-box role, with the freedom to take more risks on the ball. Hopefully this is the breakout season for the 2019 YPOTY (Young Player of the Year) to stamp his mark on the Sailors team. (Note from Eddy: I’ve been bleating on for years about how Hami is the Singaporean Thiago and now hopefully we get to see him get an extended run in the team!) Second half From a tactical standpoint, little changed. Tanjong Pagar continued to sit in their 5-4-1 formation, hoping to nick a goal while keeping themselves in the game while LCS maintained their steady, measured approach to break down Tanjong Pagar’s block. Aside from the penalty and Shahrin’s header, Tanjong Pagar were unable to create anything of note against the resolute Sailors. Interestingly, Hasrin did not turn to the bench, with 2 pacey young wingers in the form of Khairul Hairie and Zulfadhmi Suzliman eager to run at a tiring Sailors backline. When Tanjong Pagar opened up the

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Shawal to the Sailors – Lessons from Hougang’s semi-final win over Albirex

2 Comments / Player Profiles /

The following tactical analysis is from Zach Wu, who’s not a Sailors fan, but we just thought it would be good for someone without rose-tinted glasses to write about Sailors sometimes! Zach wrote this with a focus on how Shawal played against Albirex, our perennial rivals. Shawal Anuar is the highest-profile Singaporean that the Sailors snapped up in the off-season. His rise has been meteoric, from playing for Keppel Monaco with his $50 match allowance to earning a 5-figure salary playing for the Sailors. Arguably, he was one of the shining lights in a dire AFF Cup campaign for the national team, stepping up in the absence of the two Fandi attackers. Here, we shall focus on how Hougang played to his strengths last season and what he brings to the Lion City Sailors. We also take an in-depth look at how Hougang used Shawal to beat Albirex. Goal output (Appearance/Goals/Assists Table) Obviously, as an attacker, Shawal would be judged on this output, his goals and assists. Shawal really stepped up his output last season, locking down the right wing slot for Hougang. He was also second in the goalscoring charts of Hougang United, just behind Pedro Bortoluzo who took penalties for the team. His underlying xG (expected goals) was good too, with a slight overperformance of 11 goals vs 8.94 xG which shows that this is a somewhat sustainable return. He has created 24 big chances across the league season for his teammates, which shows he is very much a creative playmaker from the wing too. Shawal really made a significant step up for a Hougang team that had an inconsistent season, leading to lots of suitors home and abroad. Shawal’s first touch It is one thing to pluck the ball out of the air and to control it, it is another to make a meaningful first touch to advance play. What Shawal is so good at is his ability to evaluate the situation and make a good touch into space. He probably picked this up when largely playing on natural grass pitches, from his time with Geylang International at Bedok Stadium and then with Hougang United at Hougang stadium. With natural grass pitches, the uneven surface makes stopping the ball dead difficult or tricky and hence it might be more beneficial if one takes a good first touch into space instead. Shawal put it to good use here. For the opening goal at Hougang Stadium, Amy plays a brilliant ball behind Omori.  However, the ball takes an awkward bounce off the uneven turf just before it reaches Shawal. With Koga rushing out, a lesser attacker might take it first time, or a poor touch that loses control of the ball. Shawal intelligently flicks the ball up slightly with his first touch that flummoxes Koga, before placing the ball beyond Koga with his second touch. Shawal makes it look easy but it is no mean feat, given the uneven turf, the pressure of the occasion and running full pelt to connect with the through ball. Shawal’s threat in behind In the Singapore Cup semis, Hougang delivered a masterclass in how to beat Albirex, and they finally delivered a win for the ages, in one of the most crucial games of the season. The gameplan was simple. Hougang were never going to beat Albirex by hoarding possession of the ball, especially given the condition of Hougang’s home turf. Hougang understood that and decided to play on the transitions, hitting Albirex on the counter. A big reason that made this approach a success was Shawal Anuar, whose running in behind created the equalizer at Jurong East (top) and the opener at Hougang (bottom). In both goals, the Albirex defence was caught out by a simple direct ball behind which created both goals. Shawal defensively aware One of Shawal’s underrated qualities is his willingness to defend and his ability to read the game. Here, for Hougang’s first equalizer, an under-hit pass is played. Shawal without hesitation runs onto it and Sahil subsequently scores from it. In the league, Shawal has made 89 defensive challenges with 76 interceptions  which shows that he is willing to help out the team and is not a lazy attacker. This is pretty incredible considering he was out with injury for about a quarter of the season and only played 1872 minutes, just under 21 full 90 mins games. This is in contrast to Gabriel Quak (pink) in the Sailors’ opening ACL game, who was trotting back to cover his fullback Tajeli Salamat, allowing Urawa to send in an easy cross which led to the opening goal of the game. If you remember, this was so bad that he got hooked off by Kim Do-Hoon not long after. Given that the Sailors might not have so much midfield control this season with the departure of Shahdan Sulaiman, defensive cover may be crucial if the game is much more balanced – this may be where Shawal can make the difference to. Conclusion With bags of pace, a good touch allowing him to play on the turn while being defensively aware, he is the complete package needed to fit as the 4th attacker supplementing Tanaka, Lestienne and Diego Lopes. Sailors have a gem of an attacker on their hands, and it is up to the gaffer Vidaković to give him the right system to shine. Written by Zach Wu (Guest Writer)

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Sailors Season Pass worth the money?

5 Comments / Daily Musings /

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

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Kodai Tanaka – Massive Upgrade?

3 Comments / Daily Musings, Player Profiles, Transfers /

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

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Rusyaidi is a Sailor – More Fight, More Bite?

1 Comment / Daily Musings, Player Profiles, Transfers /

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

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Blue Is the Colour

2 Comments / Daily Musings /

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

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