There are more promising players in defense than in attack.

After young striker Nguyen Quoc Viet left HAGL to join Ninh Binh Club a few days ago, the mountain town team no longer has many promising domestic strikers. Before Quoc Viet, striker Dinh Thanh Binh left the mountain town to join Ninh Binh. If we count attacking midfielder Nguyen Duc Viet who was also in Ninh Binh before, the number of attacking players who were once noticed by HAGL Club, who have left this team, is not small.

Many young players on the attack line have left HAGL Club.

The fact that HAGL no longer has many talented, famous attacking players is a strange phenomenon for a team that was once famous for its famous attacking brand in the past few years, especially after the generation of Cong Phuong, Van Toan, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong... were trained and became famous by Mr. Duc's team.

Since the HAGL JMG Football Academy officially started operating in 2007, the academy's policy was to train attacking talents, with little focus on producing players specializing in defense. That is the reason why when the generation of players including Cong Phuong, Van Toan, Minh Vuong played in the V-League from the 2015 season, the defense was always HAGL's weak point.

However, the situation of the mountain town team is now reversed. They own quite a few promising defensive players. The most notable of these is goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien (21 years old), who was called up to the national team before the match with India on October 12.

In addition, HAGL has added central defenders Pham Ly Duc (21 years old, 1.82 m tall), Nguyen Van Trieu (21 years old, 1.88 m tall), and fullback Phan Du Hoc (23 years old, 1.72 m tall). Of these, Pham Ly Duc and Phan Du Hoc have had regular playing positions in the HAGL squad in the 2024-2025 V-League season, while Nguyen Van Trieu, although not yet playing regularly, with this player's excellent physique, his future is still quite open.

Dung Quang Nho (number 86) will be one of the players that HAGL can rely on in the near future.

Not to mention HAGL also has full-back Dung Quang Nho (24 years old). This player is not too young, but not too old either. At the same time, Dung Quang Nho used to play for the Vietnam U.23 team, has a solid position in the V-League and is currently one of the best full-backs in this tournament through the first 4 rounds.

The fact that the attacking stars and promising players in the attack line have left HAGL one after another, while they increasingly possess many promising defenders, shows a big change in thinking in the mountain town team. They have not only changed their thinking about playing style, but also changed their thinking in youth training methods.

This change is also reflected in HAGL's statistics after the first 4 rounds of V-League 2024-2025: They have only conceded 1 goal, the team that has conceded the fewest goals in the tournament. This is a very different statistic compared to HAGL itself in many years.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/hien-tuong-la-o-hagl-cau-thu-tien-vong-o-hang-thu-dong-hon-hang-cong-185241023131647893.htm