Coach Kim Sang-sik has not taken any risks, why?

Safety... easy to understand

Most of the players that coach Kim Sang-sik has called up have played for the Vietnam national team under his predecessors Park Hang-seo and Troussier. The Korean strategist favors veterans, reserving only 7 spots for the Vietnam U.23 team.

However, even these young players are safe options, as they have all been called up and have just competed in the U.23 Asian Cup finals.

The fact that coach Kim Sang-sik has not been able to risk finding new players is actually understandable if we look at the "length" of the upcoming training session.

Kim Sang-sik's safety list

Before the match against the Philippines (June 6), the Korean coach only had 4 full days of training, and 1 day of getting used to the pitch for just 1 hour. For the match against Iraq (June 12), the time was even tighter with 3 days of training, and 1 day of getting used to the pitch.

Is such a short training period enough to call up a "brand new" player and patiently test him? Coach Kim Sang-sik's way of calling people has shown the answer.

With four days of training, coach Kim Sang-sik only had time to adjust some details of the playing style, study the opponents and come up with tactics. He needed combative players: either experienced or in impressive form, to put into action right away.

For newly appointed coaches, playing it safe is a reasonable choice. When taking over the Vietnam national team in March 2023, Coach Troussier summoned all 23 players who participated in the 2022 AFF Cup, explaining: "The players Mr. Park chose for the AFF Cup are obviously the best faces of Vietnamese football at present."

Or when he first took office in November 2017, Coach Park Hang-seo also summoned almost all the players that Coach Mai Duc Chung had previously selected, even applying an almost similar tactical scheme in his debut match.

Coach Kim Sang-sik comes to the stadium to watch V-League

Do the above coaches, or Mr. Kim Sang-sik himself, want to "change the blood" of the Vietnamese team? Of course they do. However, good coaches understand that any change takes time and is carried out step by step. When time is not enough, it is reasonable to trust the previous coach's eye for choosing people.

So, it would not be surprising if the Vietnamese team plays the Philippines and Iraq with the old lineup and old style of play. What we can expect from Mr. Kim Sang-sik is a new fighting spirit and morale.

Coach Kim Sang-sik's reasoning

Coach Kim Sang-sik's changes in the Vietnam national team were bound to come sooner or later. Otherwise, the Korean strategist would not have gone through a lengthy contract negotiation process for weeks.

As a promising young coach in Korea, Mr. Kim is highly regarded for his progressive thinking. While at Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, coach Kim Sang-sik and technical director Park Ji-sung courageously rejuvenated and changed the squad of the team that had won the Korean championship nine times and built a new style of play. Jeonbuk was not really successful after that, but at least Mr. Kim showed a mindset of daring to take risks and change.

Vietnam team needs to change, but it will take time

The only problem is whether the time is long enough and the quality of the players is good enough to make a real revolution.

After completing the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the Vietnamese team will have 3 more FIFA Days (in September, October, and November) before entering the 2024 AFF Cup. With a total of 30 days for training and friendly matches, this will be a golden opportunity for Mr. Kim Sang-sik to truly purify the Vietnamese team.

Coach Kim Sang-sik's roster has caused controversy as over 60% of the players are from the Hanoi Police Club (CAHN Club), Hanoi Club and Viettel The Cong Club. However, it should be noted that most of the above players have played for the Vietnamese national team for many years, so they are all safe choices, with better ability to learn and adapt.

Another reason is that in the past 3 weeks, due to the nature of his work, Coach Kim Sang-sik has mainly watched the V-League at stadiums in Hanoi or near Hanoi (such as Hai Phong, Nam Dinh). Therefore, the teams here will have the advantage of being directly watched by the head coach more, so they have more representatives. For example, Mr. Kim has watched 5 matches of The Cong Viettel (the most among the teams), because this team has 3 home matches at Hang Day Stadium, and 2 out of 3 away matches are against representatives of the capital, so they also take place at Hang Day Stadium.

After this training camp, Mr. Kim Sang-sik will visit more stadiums to expand his observation area. Opportunities for players from many other teams will open up.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/doi-tuyen-viet-nam-hlv-kim-sang-sik-chua-mao-hiem-vi-sao-185240527183310691.htm