No more advantage
V.League over the past 15 years has witnessed the dominance of Hanoi FC. 5 out of 6 championships in history that the Capital team won were present from 2010 - 2020. This is also the time when Hanoi invested the most with a good midfield and quality "scorers".
In attack, Hoang Vu Samson, Oseni and Gonzalo are considered a danger to any opponent in V.League. In midfield, this team always has players who control the rhythm, control the game and are ready to launch "knife-sharp" passes.
Regarding the quality central midfielders of Hanoi FC, domestic players such as Ngoc Duy, Hung Dung, Quang Hai, Van Quyet or foreign players Victor, Moses... have played very well in certain stages, contributing to creating a unique playing style for the team that holds the V.League championship record.
However, that value has not been maintained by Hanoi FC in the last 3 seasons. Particularly in V.League 2024-2025, coach Le Duc Tuan and the coaching staff are still struggling to find the best framework. At this time, the capital team needs to quickly resolve the problems in the midfield, if they have the ambition to win the championship for the 7th time in history.
Mr. Le Duc Tuan's headache
In terms of points, winning 7 points after 4 matches (2 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss) is not bad for Hanoi FC. But in terms of playing style and control of the midfield in particular, coach Le Duc Tuan has reason to worry when the personnel lack stability.
In the first round, when facing Binh Dinh, Mr. Tuan used Tuan Hai, Van Quyet and Hung Dung as the central midfield trio. In the second round, Hanoi FC kept Van Quyet and Hung Dung, and also brought in Dau Van Toan as a holding midfielder.
In round 3, Mr. Tuan combined Hung Dung and Van Truong with a 2-midfielder formation. Most recently, the capital team returned to a 3-midfielder formation including Hung Dung, Van Quyet and foreign player Jaha - a "firefighting" contract after Keziah Veendrop lost points.
The urgent replacement of the foreign central midfielder is just one of the problems with Hanoi FC's force. Hung Dung, at the age of 31, no longer has the strength and high performance as he did 2-3 seasons ago. The midfielder born in 1994 can only play well for 1 half of the match. In addition, 50% of Hanoi FC's early season matches also witnessed Hung Dung unable to carry the team's midfield for 90 minutes.
Mr. Le Duc Tuan is not unaware of the obstacle from Hung Dung. But even though this player's performance has declined, he is still... better and more experienced than other options that Hanoi has such as Jaha, Van Toan, Van Truong, Xuan Manh or Hai Long.
5 years ago, Hanoi FC had many options with quality midfielders. But 5 years later, what this team has only meets the story of quantity.
The veteran midfielders' physical strength has declined, while the young players have not reached a high level, causing Hanoi FC to not have a good performance in the midfield.
After the 4th round, coach Le Duc Tuan's team averaged more than 300 passes. However, in no match did the team's pass accuracy rate reach 85%. In fact, in 3 out of the 4 matches mentioned above (except the opening match lost to Binh Dinh), Hanoi FC could not pass more than 70% successfully per match.
Once a strong team in controlling the midfield and possessing quality passes to create opportunities, Hanoi FC is now still struggling.
Finally, another sad statistic to conclude. According to data from Fstats.ai, the only person who created 5 goals for Hanoi FC after 4 rounds is the striker, Nguyen Van Tung.
