Coach Park seeks to renovate tactics of national team

ABO/NDO – Coach Park Hang-seo and his assistants are working hard to prepare the national football team in advance of important tournaments this year, despite the fact that COVID-19 has forced the domestic leagues to be postponed.

Coach Park Hang-seo (far right) and his colleagues discuss preparations for the Vietnamese team during the break caused by COVID-19. (Photo: Vietnam Football Federation)

Park said his coaching staff have reviewed the team’s previous matches and analysed in detail the parameters of each player to find solutions to improve their performance.

“We see that at present Vietnam has many good midfielders. The coaching staff wants to take advantage of the strength in the middle to help the whole team play better. In addition, we are also trying to build a variety of tactical systems to help the team have multiple options to face different opponents,” the 62-year-old Korean tactician said.

Currently, the Vietnamese team still have three matches in Group G of Asia’s second round of qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with Malaysia (away), Indonesia (home) and the UAE (away), respectively. Going on the previous schedule, the match against Malaysia was supposed to have kicked off on March 31, but was officially postponed due to fears over the spread of the new coronavirus.

COVID-19 has also forced V.League 1 – the country’s top division – and other lower leagues to be postponed until mid-April or possibly even further, while local football clubs have to adjust their training schedules to survive the fallout.

According to Park, the delayed schedule could bring disadvantages for Vietnam, because the Malaysian team will now have enough time to strengthen their squad as they are finalising procedures to naturalise a fourth foreign player (Malaysia already has three naturalised players). However, the Korean coach said that his team were not too concerned about that.

“What I care about is the Vietnamese team. We also need to have plans to improve ourselves during this break,” Park stressed.

The current standings in Group G benefit the Vietnamese team. After five matches, the "Golden Stars" have taken the lead with 11 points, followed by Malaysia (nine points), Thailand (eight points), UAE (six points) and Indonesia (zero point). This also explains the caution of Park in the preparation for the very important next game against Malaysia.

“The match against Malaysia will be the hardest [among the last three matches]. They still hope to progress to the next round, while possessing quite strong players and, importantly, they have home advantage. If we win against Malaysia, we will be able to maintain our position in first place and open the door to the final qualifying round,” Park said, adding that his team will “do everything they can to win” in Malaysia.

After the continuous success of Vietnamese football in the past two years having Park at the helm, experts have warned that now it is time for the team to gradually adapt to their current situation, as their opponents are no longer surprised by Park’s tactics. Though agreeing with this view, Park said that the team need more time to change and find out their most effective playing style.

“Currently, the coaching staff are in constant discussion to find out what needs to be done to improve our tactics, as well as preparing new plans for the team. But the new tactics will also have to match the capabilities of the players. They need to adapt to the new tactics so that the change can help them improve. We are working hard to have that,” Park informed.

In addition, the coaching staff also revealed that the team are facing great difficulties as several key players are injured. Park expressed his hope that the current break due to COVID-19 would help his players recover in time.

“Every injury is unfortunate, however, we can prevent and limit unnecessary injuries. Personally, I think that clubs need to focus on improving their medical team capacity to help players avoid serious injuries. On the national coaching staff's side, we are considering alternatives for some injured players,” Park said.

(Source: NDO)