AIA Community Shield 2020: Tampines Rovers vs Hougang United
Both Tampines Rovers and Hougang United came into this game off impressive victories in their first AFC Cup game of the season with a scoreline of 2-1 and 3-1 respectively. Tampines Rovers named a relatively unchanged side with the exception of Joel Chew starting in place of Madhu Mohana while Hougang United rested key players such as Fabian Kwok, Stipe Plazibat, Sahil Suhaimi and Nazrul Nazari for their upcoming AFC Cup game.
Tampines Rover’s Lineup
Hougang United’s Lineup
Tampines lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with a midfield pivot of Kyoga and Mehmedovic. In possession, either of the midfield pivot will drop between the center backs in order to progress the ball with the full-backs pushing up the field. Irwan Shah is the more advanced fullback with Shah Shahiran positioned slightly deeper to provide balance and symmetry. When out of possession, Tampines will go into a 4-4-2 formation with Yasir Hanapi pushing further up to form a front 2 with Kopitovic to press Hougang’s center backs.
On the other hand, Hougang lined up in a 3-4-3 formation with Vestering and Muhaimin pushing really high up the pitch when in possession, forming a 5-man attack. Without possession, Hougang mainly defended in a 5-2-3 low block and hold their positions.
Hougang’s lack of penetration
Hougang looked to press high from the start with the ball-near forward immediately pressuring the ball receiver with the rest of the players looking to close down on nearby passing options.
As seen in the picture above, Hougang’s high press resulted in Shawal Anuar winning the ball off Syahrul Sazali. However, Hougang failed to capitalise on the opportunity.
As the game went on, Hougang decided to go into a medium block, allowing the first pass out from the defence. They looked to cut off the second pass and counter-attack through the wide areas via their wingbacks. However, most of their crosses into the box were not met by Shawal and Farhan as they lost the physical battle against Tampines’s centerbacks due to their bigger statures.
Also, Hougang’s defence lacked a real leader as there seemed to be no sorts of communications whatsoever. Faiz Salleh will look to step out to press the ball carrier but no one will look to cover the space that he left and this led to some decent chances by Tampines as seen below.
This happened a few times throughout the game which gifted Tampines great opportunities.
The matter is made worse with Hougang’s poor spacing which meant that Tampines players were free to make dangerous runs into the open spaces.
As seen in the image above, the Tampines wide player made a smart run to drag out one of Hougang’s centerbacks. However, the defence did not reposition themselves to reduce the space vacated which could have resulted in a dangerous deep run by one of Tampines’s midfielders.
In the midfield, Nikesh pressed the ball carrier aimlessly and the poor positioning of Charlie Machell meant that there were lots of gaps that Tampines gladly exploited. The midfield also did not help the progression of the ball from Hougang’s defensive third as they did not offer themselves as passing options.
In the second half, Hougang did not make any changes with the exception of Shafiq Ghani being tasked to stay slightly deeper. As time went on, Tampines’s domination of the game increased too and they were finally able to capitalise on Hougang’s weaknesses.
Tampines’s positional game
As seen in the pictures above, Tampines had rather good spacing with the players all occupying a different channel which allowed for the smooth progression of the ball. Each of Tampines’s players had ample space to receive the ball and when Hougang looked to press them, they could easily pass to one of the open options.
In defence, Tampines were disciplined in maintaining a 4-4-2 shape which limited Hougang’s option of progressing the ball.
As seen in the above image, Hanapi pressed the ball carrier (Anders Aplin) with the rest of the players keeping compact and cutting off the nearby pressing options. The only option was for Anders Aplin to play the ball to Muhaimin which he eventually did. This happened in the 38th minute of the game and previously, the same situation happened in the 23rd minute which resulted in Anders Aplin passing the ball into the path of Hanapi. Unfortunately for Tampines, the bounce off Hanapi was too huge and Anders was able to clear the ball.
On the left, Jordan Webb played very wide (almost on the touchline) which allowed for Irwan Shah to make underlapping runs which dragged Hougang players wide. On the right, Kopitovic made diagonal runs towards the right which created space in the centre for passing combinations with Yasir Hanapi. This can be seen in the buildup for Tampines’s first goal.
Tampines’s buildup for the first goal
Hougang did not make any tactical changes which allowed for Tampines to continue playing dangerous vertical through balls via Mehmedovic and Kyoga. Tampines also looked to overload the ball-near area before switching towards the opposite flank. This resulted in Tampines making 14 shots with 7 on target as compared to Hougang’s 7 shots with 1 on target.
Conclusion
Most of Hougang’s chances were initiated from Hougang’s high press but the team’s apparent lack of fitness prevented the team from doing so. The situation is not helped with the evident absence of a Target Man like Plazibat which would have suit Hougang’s gameplan. The team’s failure to replace Faris Ramli meant that they hardly threatened from range too. Instead of bringing on an extra midfielder to secure central channels, Clement Tan brought on a like for like midfield replacement which allowed Tampines to continue dominating. A 3 man midfield could have secured the central channels and given Hougang more of a chance on the counter. Tampines looked brilliant in their first competitive game of the season and were deserved winners for the community shield. With Tampines competing on 4 fronts this season, they will look to build on the momentum and hope to be able to win the Singapore Premier League this season.
*All images were taken from 1PlaySport’s Youtube Channel
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