An irreplaceable role
Basically, the teams, despite being very strong in the V.League, are still successful thanks to outstanding foreign players rather than the mark of domestic players. Currently, Ninh Binh is a rare team where the mark of domestic players such as Duc Chien and Hoang Duc overwhelms the foreign players Gustavo and Daniel. However, there were still 2 Brazilian players who played the role of scoring and solving the match.
For Nam Dinh, The Cong Viettel or Hanoi FC, as long as the foreign players have problems, the domestic players of the national team will find it difficult to leave a special mark.
Recently, the success of Dong A Thanh Hoa in the past two seasons, in addition to coach Popov, has also had the contribution of stars such as Bruno Cunha, Gustavo Santos, Paulo Conrado, Antonio ribamar and most recently Lucas Luiz.
This season, Thanh Hoa faces many fluctuations. In particular, Ribamar's injury made things more difficult. When Odilzhon, Mamadou and Rimario lost themselves, coach Choi Won-kwon has not won in 5 matches.
For the group of teams struggling to stay in the league last season, their common point comes from the fact that "Western" players are not of good quality. Da Nang marked a miraculous journey to stay in the league when coach Le Duc Tuan boldly deployed all foreign players.
That said, foreign players still account for 50% of a club's strength, especially weak teams.
Why is the team still dependent on foreign players?
There are many problems that make teams depend on foreign players. First, the supply of quality domestic players is increasingly scarce. There was a story that mid-range teams such as Thanh Hoa, Da Nang, Binh Duong spent money to find quality foreign players, which was easier than buying good domestic players. They can't compete with teams that are too strong financially.
Recently, V.League has seen a situation where all domestic players are concentrating on some teams. Hanoi Police, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Truong Tuoi Dong Nai, Hanoi FC or The Cong Viettel own most of the national and U23 Vietnam players. The remaining domestic players are divided equally among other teams, the quality is a big question mark.
Therefore, the resources of the teams are often concentrated on foreign players in the hope of carrying the team. Indeed, this gamble has successes at times and failures at times.
However, foreign players still bring many positive points. The appearance of million-dollar players helps domestic players have stronger competition, the experience in each match is enhanced.
In Nam Dinh's case, they bought up to 12 high-class foreign players just to serve the goal of playing in the Asian Cup and Southeast Asia. This helps Vietnamese audiences feel like a Vietnamese club is playing up front for the first time when going to the continental arena.
It seems that the dependence on foreign players will continue, but Vietnamese football must take advantage of the positive aspects to create an excellent domestic player generation like before.
