Tien Linh is in great form, but can he compete for the title of V-League top scorer?

Internal and external balance

Since the Vietnamese football championship was renamed V-League, only three domestic strikers have won the title of top scorer in this tournament, including Dang Dao of Khanh Hoa team in the first season 2000-2001 (11 goals), Ho Van Loi of Saigon Port team in the season 2001-2002 (9 goals) and Nguyen Anh Duc of Binh Duong team in the season 2017 (17 goals).

In the remaining 20 seasons, the top scorer title belongs to foreign players. This is a huge difference in performance between domestic and foreign players. Of course, foreign players have many advantages over domestic players, especially in terms of physique and speed. Another detail that makes it easier for foreign players to shine in the V-League environment is that most coaches in the domestic league build a style of play around foreign strikers, using a lot of high balls and long balls to the front line, and few small group coordination phases. This inadvertently eliminates the technical quality of domestic strikers, glorifying the physical strength of foreign strikers.

Will Tien Linh make a difference with Binh Duong Club?

Nguyen Anh Duc is a domestic striker with many qualities most similar to foreign strikers, when he won the title of top scorer of V-League 2017. This player is tall (1.82 m), good at aerial combat, strong, and sharp in front of the opponent's goal. With 2 other domestic strikers who won the title of top scorer of V-League, Dang Dao and Ho Van Loi, they have very unique qualities. Dang Dao is a striker with extremely good speed, almost able to beat any opponent in speed races.

Meanwhile, Ho Van Loi has individual skills and finishing skills that are rare in Vietnamese football. In addition, both Dang Dao and Ho Van Loi are very "strange", good at deceiving defenders when facing these defenders (this is a point that Nguyen Van Toan lacks today, even though Van Toan is also extremely fast when racing). Moreover, 22-23 years ago, football teams in the V-League did not pay as much attention to foreign strikers as they do now.

Expectations for Nguyen Tien Linh

Considering many factors, Nguyen Tien Linh today has similarities with Nguyen Anh Duc in that Tien Linh is not too bad in terms of physique (1.80 m tall). Tien Linh is good at heading the ball, he has the same quality as Dang Dao and finishes well as Ho Van Loi.

Tien Linh just shone with the Vietnamese team in a friendly match with the Thai team.

Tien Linh started the 2024–2025 season in good form, scoring two goals against Thanh Hoa right at Thanh Hoa Stadium. Before that, Tien Linh scored against Thailand while playing for Vietnam, despite facing a tall defense from the Golden Temple team.

What Tien Linh needs is the support of his teammates around him and the desire of Binh Duong team itself. One of the reasons why domestic strikers cannot fully develop their abilities is because their home teams are sometimes not really determined. For example, Binh Duong team started very strongly last season, but then slowed down in the final stage of the tournament, making viewers feel that winning each match is no longer a priority for this team.

This year is different, coach Hoang Anh Tuan wanted to set high goals for Binh Duong Club from the beginning. Mr. Tuan also did not hesitate to reveal that he would build an attacking style of play around Tien Linh, which would benefit the number 1 striker of Vietnamese football.

Review Tien Linh's goal against Thailand team

The last time Tien Linh scored many goals in the V-League was in the 2018 season, with 15 goals. He was the domestic striker with the most goals that season, coinciding with the period when Binh Duong team (under coach Tran Minh Chien) was full of desire to conquer titles (they won the National Cup that year). This year, Binh Duong has a similar desire, Tien Linh is in the same high form, and is supported by many quality teammates around. That is a very good premise for Tien Linh to compete for the title of top scorer with foreign strikers.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tien-linh-phong-do-cao-day-nhung-lieu-canh-tranh-noi-danh-hieu-vua-pha-luoi-v-league-185240917121207804.htm