In the friendly match with the Russian team on September 5, the Korean coach placed some young players in the starting lineup of the Vietnamese team such as defender Thanh Binh, Tuan Tai, midfielder Van Truong, Hai Long. In fact, with players who are 23, 24 years old, they are not really called young players anymore - for example, Thanh Binh has played 22 matches for the team, Tuan Tai 17 matches, but in the context of current Vietnamese football, it can still be considered as such.
In terms of individual performance, although not too good, they are not bad either. Or to be exact, when playing alongside experienced seniors, they gain more confidence. For example, Vi Hao was put on the field in the second half, although surrounded by Quang Hai, Tuan Anh, Tuan Hai, Tien Linh, the 21-year-old player of Becamex Binh Duong played well.
Of course, having learned from his predecessor Philippe Troussier, who tried to rejuvenate the squad massively - and failed - Kim Sang-sik has made more reasonable calculations. But fans would like to see him experiment more, with even younger elements.
Recently, in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the Brazilian team introduced another young player - Estevao, only 17 years old. The Palmeiras club player played the last 30 minutes of the match with great confidence and good stats. Not long ago, Selecao also introduced another 17-year-old player, Endrick, so that up to now, the new Real Madrid player has had 10 matches wearing the yellow-green shirt.
How to help young players is up to the coaches. As Mr. Ishii Masatada of the Thai National Team stated, he called up many young players during the FIFA Days in September “to see how they play without Teerasil Dangda, Theerathon Bunmathan, Chanathip Songkrasin by their side”.
It may be good, it may not be good, but it is not difficult to see that the quality of Thailand's young players is enough for the new coach to lead the team from November 2023 to be ready to have strong experiments.
