Domestic coaches are gaining the upper hand over foreign coaches in the V-League.

The coach with the highest expectations but also the biggest disappointment so far is Gong Oh-kyun (a South Korean) of Hanoi Police FC. After 4 matches in charge in the V-League, Gong Oh-kyun has yet to win a single game (2 draws, 2 losses).

Coach Gong Oh-kyun is facing difficulties with CAHN Club.

Coach Gong Oh-kyun had success with the Vietnam U.23 team at last year's AFC U.23 Asian Championship. Thanks to his achievement of leading the Vietnam U.23 team to the quarterfinals of the tournament last year, Coach Gong Oh-kyun has attracted attention from Vietnamese football circles.

However, since joining CAHN Club about two months ago, the South Korean coach has yet to make an impact.

The nature of managing national teams is different from that of coaching in a national championship. National teams, specifically the Vietnam U23 team last year, compete in short-term tournaments, while the V-League is a competition that lasts for many months.

Therefore, coaches have different ways of calculating peak performance and peak physical condition for their team's players.

Moreover, for the V-League, finding information to research opponents will be more difficult than researching teams like the U.23 South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia in last year's U.23 Asian Championship.

This stems from the fact that information about South Korean, Thai, or Malaysian football is easier to find than information and videos about teams like Khanh Hoa and Hai Phong in the V-League (these are the teams that Coach Gong Oh-kyun's CAHN club has lost to in the past two months).

Another coach facing difficulties in the V-League is Kiatisak Senamuang (from Thailand) of HAGL FC. Compared to coach Gong Oh-kyun, Kiatisak understands Vietnamese football much better.

Coach Kiatisak has also not been successful with HAGL.

However, it seems that "Zico Thai" is being figured out by the Vietnamese football community. After his first season in 2021, when he led HAGL to the top of the V-League (but was not officially recognized as the champion because the league was suspended midway), Coach Kiatisak's performance with the team from Pleiku has steadily declined in the following years.

At this point, HAGL, under "Zico Thai," has returned to being a candidate for relegation. The objective reason for HAGL's poor performance is that their squad is weaker than it was in 2021, following the departure of many key players.

However, from coach Kiatisak's perspective, it's unclear what special plan he has devised to transform the team from the mountainous region. Even in recruiting foreign strikers, a position that "Zico Thai" excelled in as a player, coach Kiatisak has yet to find a truly effective striker for HAGL in the past few years.

In terms of adaptability, domestic coaches may have an advantage over foreign coaches, simply because they are more familiar with the Vietnamese football environment.

Coach Le Huynh Duc (right) leads Binh Duong to the top of the table.

Up to this point in the 2023-2024 season, the most successful coaches have all been domestic: Le Huynh Duc is leading the league with Binh Duong FC, Vu Hong Viet is second with Nam Dinh FC, Phung Thanh Phuong is undefeated despite being only a "stand-in" coach at Ho Chi Minh City FC, and Chu Dinh Nghiem has helped Hai Phong FC play with great personality…

In particular, coach Phùng Thanh Phương is a prime example of the adaptability of some domestic coaches. He took over TP.HCM FC hastily, following the somewhat unexpected departure of his predecessor Vũ Tiến Thành. The TP.HCM FC squad was no better, and even worse, than HAGL under coach Kiatisak.

Coach Phùng Thanh Phương is having success with Ho Chi Minh City FC.

However, coach Phùng Thanh Phương is helping this virtually unknown team, both domestic and foreign, to climb to the top of the league table, with 4 unbeaten matches (2 wins, 2 draws).

The period during which Coach Phung Thanh Phuong coached Ho Chi Minh City FC almost coincided with the period when Coach Gong Oh-kyun led Hanoi FC. However, the performance of these two teams has differed greatly in the last four rounds, even though, theoretically, Coach Gong Oh-kyun has many more advantages than Coach Phung Thanh Phuong, especially in terms of the quality of the players he possesses.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/hlv-noi-dang-thang-the-so-voi-hlv-ngoai-tai-v-league-185231223145321289.htm