Van Toan is HAGL’s fatal weakness against Yokohama F.Marinos?

Last season, Vietnamese football fans witnessed a Van Toan in top form. The kicking style is full of speed but still retains the ability to score sharp goals that have helped the Hai Duong striker always be in the Top of the top scorers in the V.League 2021.

Before the tournament was canceled, Van Toan was the driving force to help Hoang Anh Gia Lai’s attack run smoothly and explode. His contribution to the number 1 position of V.League 2021 of the mountain town team is extremely large. However, this cannot continue after the first matches in this year’s V.League.

HAGL has only scored 2 goals this season and those were all scored by striker Nguyen Cong Phuong in a 2-2 draw against Viettel. They entered the quarterfinals of the National Cup after a goalless draw and overcame Ha Tinh club on penalty shootouts. Foreign soldiers do not know how to score, the domestic striker is silent and the most expected person is Van Toan showing a relatively bad performance.

1 year ago, Van Toan was still leading the race to score many goals of the V.League. He has 7 goals after 12 rounds, including 2 goals after the first 4 rounds. And now, the striker born in 1996 has not had the opportunity to celebrate the goal forever. His most comforting goal was in a friendly match against Binh Dinh before the 2022 AFC Champions League.

V.League 2021, Kiatisak blew the atmosphere of determination for the mountain town team so that the players scored 23 goals after 12 rounds, an average of 1.91 goals/match. The German football team did not let the opponent block the undefeated momentum.

However, in this season, Kiatisak and his students lost their inspiration to compete as they did last year. HAGL is ranked 9th on the rankings with 3 draws and 1 loss. The Thai leader saw instability but did not know how to improve the situation.

Van Toan’s personal steps are no longer as elegant as last season. The pressure as well as the performance drop made his legs like “lead”. This makes HAGL’s strength suddenly become a weakness, when the intermediate point between midfield and attack named Van Toan is almost harmless in front of the opponent’s goal.

Therefore, if Van Toan cannot regain his form before the difficult match against Japanese giants Yokohama F.Marinos, it is likely that HAGL will have to receive a defeat on the opening day of the AFC Champions League.