shawal anuar – SailorFanTalk

[Preview] Sailors v Albirex – Not a Trophy, But a Chance to Lay Down a Marker

Leave a Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

You know what people always say – the Community Shield is not a trophy if another club wins it, but if your team wins it, then yes, yes it’s absolutely a trophy. Well, not for me. I am quite clear in my opinion that it’s not really a trophy. Just 1 game to win it, it doesn’t feel hard-earned, y’know? If some people can dismiss Greece’s run to Euro 2004 victory as a fluke, even though they had to play a total of 6 games, then surely just winning 1 game can be a fluke as well, and it just doesn’t seem to count. (But of course, I am of the opinion that Greece’s win was no fluke – for those much younger please enjoy this video which shows their amazing run. They faced France, Czech Republic and Portugal in the knockout rounds, and won 1-0 on each occasion. NO GOALS CONCEDED IN THE KNOCKOUT STAGES. Oh, and Portugal were playing this tournament at home, yet were beaten twice by Greece, once in the group stage and once when it mattered most in the final.) But I digress. As so often happens on this site. Sorry. This year I will try to keep the articles shorter and more to the point. Maybe. Don’t bet on it. But anyway, don’t take it from me, take it from legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who said that he “never included extras like the Charity Shield and the European Super Cup because they are won with a single victory“. If it’s good enough for one of the most decorated managers of all times, it’s good enough for me. The Community Shield doesn’t count as a trophy. But Is It Still Important? Yes – it’s very important to win the game. I may sound like I am contradicting myself now, but hear me out. The Community Shield isn’t important because it’s a trophy. It’s important because of who we are playing. It is our old foes, Albirex Niigata (S). This year, they are more (S) than ever, because they are finally playing with the same rules as everyone else. Finally, they no longer get to fill their team with Japanese imports from a superior grassroots system, and then have people bleating on and on about how they are winning the title with kids. Yes, they are kids, but they are kids from a far superior system! The fact is that when our national team do their training camps in Japan, they sometimes play university opposition – this should show the gulf between the two nations when it comes to footballing standards. This year, we don’t have that reason / excuse anymore. They have the same number of Singaporeans as we do – we get to sign the foreigners we want, they get to sign the foreigners they want. If anything, they are a bit restricted in that they can only really sign Japanese players because that is more on-brand, while we get our pick from the whole world, essentially. As for the local players, they have signed good players in the likes of Ho Wai Loon, Daniel Goh, Arshad Shamim, etc, but it would be a stretch to suggest that these players are better than the locals in the Sailors ranks. And so this is why the match takes on such importance – if we lose, you can expect the knives to come out already. People will use the result of a glorified friendly to say that King Kazu is indeed the king, being able to lead a reset team to victory over the Sailors, who have much more in terms of resources, and also a settled core of the team. And they’d be quite right to say so – provided of course he can keep it up over the course of the long season. So yes, this match is still important, and unlike a traditional preview where we try and predict what the key battles are going to be, given that Albirex is pretty much an unknown quantity, let’s explore what we can look forward to tomorrow. How Will Bart Fit In? So far, Bart has looked good in pre-season. Or at least, what we got to see in the two friendlies against JDT. He was tidy with his passing, and brave with his running. He would frequently collect the ball in our half, turn, retain the ball, and then drive forwards looking to link up with his teammates. As he settles more and more into the team, these combinations are gonna pay off in a big way, but for now, I think we are all keenly anticipating his impact on the team. We wrote a little article about him, and focused on how interestingly for someone playing in midfield, he scores more than he creates. Maxime and him thus sound like a match made in Heaven, because Maxime loves providing an assist. Jokes aside, will Bart line up in the middle next to Maxime on the right, so that the two of them can do their own little 1-2s all the way into the box, the way Diego and Maxime used to? Or will Bart play where he lined up against JDT, nominally on the left, drifting in to create havoc? There are pros and cons of each approach of course, and I guess it comes down to whether Coach Ranko wants to concentrate the threat in one area, or spread it out, given that Bart seems just as capable of creating magic without Maxime next to him. Whether Song plays is also something that may affect this. Like Bart, Song is a midfielder who gets more goals than assists. If Song plays, Bart may take up a slightly more withdrawn position so he can feed Song and Shawal ahead of him. Shawal to Start? Where is Richairo? So yes, I mentioned Shawal to start in attack. Rasaq is on the mend after a long injury, and may not be seen as

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[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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[Post-Match Thoughts] Not Good Enough (Tampines 4 LCS 3)

3 Comments / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

It took a while to write this one because work was busy af. If I am being completely honest with myself, perhaps a part of me just knew that this was gonna be painful to write. To lose this game by 1 goal only felt like a major stroke of luck – and I am not just talking about Glenn Kweh’s exquisitely-taken volley which gave us an undeserved glimmer of hope. Really, what a goal. It reminded me of Robin Snake van Persie’s goal against Charlton all those years ago, just of course, at the wrong end. It was a rare moment of joy in what was otherwise a terrible game to sit through. At no point did I feel that the Sailors deserved to win the game. We played well for 8 minutes, deservedly took the lead with a sublime pass from Maxime Lestienne (of course), and Shawal Anuar got a goal on his first start for the club. After that, it was just terrible to watch. We were so so passive, and although the fans tried their best to keep chanting and keep encouraging the team, I could audibly hear the frustration growing amongst the supporters. I put off looking at the Instat statistics for a long time, because I was afraid of what I would see. But here goes – a stat attack: Out-shot, out-passed, out-fought – the stats confirm what the eyes tell us. I think if I wanted to write all my observations and list all my disappointments, it’d take an eternity, so I will limit myself to two or three main points. I will also highlight some positives – ok I’ll start with this because I’ll be done in a jiffy. So, let’s get the positives out of the way. Nathan Mao Huge positive, this. Earlier this season, Sailors fans were introduced to the talents of 16 year-old Jonan Tan. On Friday night, it was the turn of an even younger prospect – Nathan Mao. Nathan was only 15 years and 5 days old when he made his debut, in the process breaking the record for youngest debutant in the SPL, previously held by Young Lions defender, Raoul Suhaimi (who I am a big fan of). Nathan came on late, and I think most of us thought that this was just a chance for the young lad to get some minutes – and it probably was. I don’t think Coach Risto sent him on thinking that he would make a difference and help us clawback a 2-goal lead. But it didn’t matter to young Nathan, who made the most of his time spent on the pitch. Within seconds, you could tell he wasn’t just gonna see out the minutes meaninglessly and just be a stat. He came on, and made incisive runs to try to get the ball. He was also a prolific “scanner”, immediately checking over his shoulder repeatedly to see where the space was, and where any potential opponents may be. For those who may be less acquainted with “scanning”, or “visual exploratory frequency”, this article may be of help. He managed to win 2 free kicks in his time on the pitch, including the incident where he got crunched by Milos Zlatkovic, who decided not to take any risks, even though the lad was 14 years old barely a week ago. Congrats Milos, you can add child abuse to your CV (just a joke, calm down). A proud moment for the boy and his family I am sure, and it was nice to see that regardless of what happened in the game, the Sailors fans were in full voice welcoming Nathan to the pitch and cheering his every touch. Nathan is one to watch! Anu In a match crying out for some movement, some aggression, it was kinda shocking that it took until the 84th minute for Anu to come on. Even though we never stopped singing for the team, it was clear to us once Faris scored that we were not gonna launch any sort of comeback. Anu’s introduction gave us something to shout about. And when Nathan came on too, suddenly there was movement, and even though we fans never truly believed we would get the equaliser, the heart and the effort made it easier for us to be loud and proud. Fans have a responsibility of lifting the team when they are down, but I truly believe that it’s a two-way process – the players also have to give something for the fans to hold on to, or the fans will lose steam. Anu gave us that. Now let’s move on to the negatives. Hariss Harun Believe me, I hate to do this. As a 35 year-old, I grew up supporting football not old enough to really take in Fandi’s talents, or enjoy watching the whole career of legends such as Nazri Nasir, Rafi Ali, Aide Iskandar, etc. So my hero growing up was Hariss. I have Hariss shirts at home and I think it is clear that he is no longer as mobile as he used to be. Thing about Hariss is that he still is able to affect games with his experience, and his decision-making. His leadership qualities are also held up by many as a reason to continue playing him in the national team and in the Sailors team. As recently as a few weeks back, when we spoke to Hami Syahin, he mentioned how Hariss actually gives a sense of calmness to the players when they defend transitions. Unfortunately, I think the Tampines game is one where he was really shown up. On transitions, it did not look like Hariss knew how to stop Tampines. On more than a few occasions, instead of pressing up to the ball, us fans were disappointed to see Hariss decide to take up a conservative position as he actively jogged away from the ball instead of trying to win it. This resulted in Tampines having a lot

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[POST-MATCH THOUGHTS] – Winning On A Cold Rainy Night In Bishan (LCS 3 DPMM 1)

1 Comment / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

Pre-game, the club cheekily said in their Instagram post that it was time to do it on a “cold rainy night in Bishan“. For those who may not be familiar with the reference, this is one of English football’s greatest cliches, where if you wanted cast doubt on a foreign signing, you would claim that while he may be a world-beater, you would question if he would be able to “do it on a cold rainy night in Stoke“. The origin of this phrase was from Andy Gray who in 2011 ridiculously claimed that while Messi was a world-class talent, he would not be able to do well in an away game at Stoke, presumably because the physicality of the Stoke players, and awful weather conditions would combine to nullify Messi. DPMM Playing Like Stoke? Enough with the history lesson. If there was any team that was going to be Stoke-like last night, it certainly wasn’t the Sailors. DPMM, making their comeback to the SPL were physical and robust all night, fighting and scrapping hard to try to wrestle some control of the game. In some ways, it was pretty admirable to watch, given that they managed to pump themselves up for the fight when they had not played a high-level competitive league game for three years. I had the privilege of speaking to Coach Adrian Pennock after the game, and he gave praise to his players for their attitude. He also said he was filled with enthusiasm after the performance especially because he was dealing with some injuries in the squad, and also because key midfielder Josip Balic was out. However, even though it pains me to say this because Coach Pennock was such a gent in the post-match interview, the fans (myself included) did get mighty pissed off by the time-wasting antics of the Bruneians in the first half before the goal went in. The keeper seemed to take an age with every goal kick. He Pickford-ed at every opportunity (do yourself a favour and check it up on youtube to see what I mean – but basically this means a keeper wasting time by dramatically falling onto the ball and taking a long time to get up even though it is a routine save). In fact, he wasted so much time that at one goal kick, a small boy in the stands behind me shouted “What’s wrong with this goalkeeper? He take one kick take 50 years ah?” Kids say the darndest things, don’t they – but in this case he wasn’t exactly off the mark. Perhaps if we can have some sympathy for them, this is their first competitive game in a while, and Coach Pennock also referred to the fatigue suffered by his players, especially in the second half, so maybe they were just trying to slow the pace of the game down a little. Still doesn’t make all that diving and time-wasting OK, but oh well we got the win, so, moving on. Defensive Frailty? Much like the Tanjong Pagar game, there is a bit of a worry within me watching our Sailors play because while we look to be in control for large parts of the game, when we come under some pressure, it really seems like a sense of panic spreads within the team, and this period of pressure becomes a little sustained. We then have to rely on excellent goalkeeping, or last-ditch tackles to really try and keep our opponents out. Last night, the goal came from an error by Zharfan Rohaizad, who up till then had been pretty decent. He was called upon to save a few shots, and he did that well. He was also good with distribution too. However, the error was a glaring one as he passed the ball straight to Varankow and this eventually led to a goal. I think this happens sometimes when we play out from the back, and I liked that Coach Risto played down the error when he said – Zharfan had a decent game otherwise, especially considering the wet conditions. He made saves when he had to, clung on to some of the crosses well, and although I am sure he will not be happy with his overall performance, it is definitely something to build on. Defensively, I thought Lionel Tan had a great game and he seemed to crunch into many challenges, getting on the nerves of the DPMM players, who repeatedly got into verbal tussles with him. He was involved in 15 challenges, and won 11 of them. Impressively, he only gave away one foul despite his front-foot approach towards defending which led to him sometimes being pulled out of his favoured central-defensive position. Also impressive was his 93% passing completion rate with 54 passes played – a high percentage considering one of the often-held criticisms about him is his lack of ball-playing ability. Anu won 82% of his challenges as well, and was generally untroubled until a spell in the second half, where the whole team seemed to lose composure for a little bit. In our post-match interview with Hami Syahin, he mentioned that there will inevitably be times in a game where the players lack a little focus, or the opponents look to be dominant in attack, but the team would rely on Hariss to calm them down and help them remain composed. I have to admit that from my perspective in the stands, it really did seem that the period before DPMM’s goal already showed us hints that DPMM were going to trouble the scoresheet soon – so I am not so sure that the composure was really visible to us fans. Why the apparent sudden defensive frailty in the 2nd half? Frankly I cannot tell. I’ve already tasked Zach to look into this, and hopefully he will have some answers for us in the Tactical Analysis piece that should come out in the next few days! Quick Thinking Makes the First Goal Before I

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

2 Comments / Player Profiles / Eddy Hirono

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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