Vietnam National Team: Who does coach Kim Sang Sik expect to replace Xuan Son?

Story from Nam Dinh Club…

After 10 rounds, Nam Dinh Blue Steel is temporarily ranked 2nd on the LPBank V-League rankings, but is still considered the number 1 candidate for the championship race.

The brilliant performance of naturalized striker Xuan Son, along with an excellent squad of domestic and foreign players, is enough for the reigning V-League champion to confidently "balance" all fronts from domestic to international (AFC Champione League 2).

Without Xuan Son in the squad, Nam Dinh faces many difficulties. Photo: DL

But, this time is different, Xuan Son's injury in the Vietnamese national team's shirt participating in the ASEAN Cup 2024 is causing a headache for coach Vu Hong Viet and the team from Thanh Nam.

In the last two matches, Nam Dinh Blue Steel did not play as well as fans expected. The reigning V-League champions were eliminated early from the 1/8 round of the National Cup, unable to take the top spot from Thanh Hoa when they were held to a draw by the home team.

As a result, it is worth mentioning that the Southern team appears to have lost direction in their attacking plans when missing the striker who scored 1/3 of the goals this season (up to round 10) or more than half of last season.

For the rest of the season, coach Vu Hong Viet can find a solution or adapt to Xuan Son's absence, but it will not be simple to rely too much on the naturalized Brazilian striker.

…to a lesson for Mr. Kim Sang Sik

Similar to Nam Dinh, Xuan Son's long break will cause the Vietnamese team or coach Kim Sang Sik a lot of trouble in the near future.

But, for the Vietnamese team, it is more worrying when looking at the backups for Xuan Son that Mr. Kim Sang Sik has in hand, from Tien Linh, Tuan Hai to Vi Hao, Thanh Binh... like at the ASEAN Cup 2024.

Coach Kim Sang Sik needs to learn lessons if he doesn't want the Vietnamese team to face difficulties. Photo: SN

The above domestic strikers are of course not inferior, but if compared to the danger, efficiency and class that Xuan Son showed with the Vietnamese team at the ASEAN Cup 2024, it is certainly not possible.

With the first matches of the Vietnam team in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, there is no need to worry too much because the opponent is quite easy, but after that, if Xuan Son does not recover and reach 100% of his previous form, it will clearly give Mr. Kim Sang Sik a headache.

So, instead of waiting for Xuan Son to return and find his peak form, perhaps right now coach Kim Sang Sik should prepare options from personnel to playing style to prevent bad things from happening.

It needs to be done soon, because the goal of Vietnamese football certainly does not stop at the ASEAN Cup but must go further.

Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/tuyen-viet-nam-hlv-kim-sang-sik-trong-cay-ai-thay-xuan-son-2364632.html