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Zheng urges Talents to play like ‘warriors’
Tam Cheong Yan
info@sleague.com
Beijing Guoan Talent coach Zheng Xiaotian has called upon his charges to show more courage in their play – especially when they are ahead.
The message came ahead of the China-based side’s league clash with local giants Home United at Jalan Besar Stadium on Friday evening.
The Protectors match will be Beijing’s second major test in the week, coming three days after their meeting with Tampines Rovers.
They had started impressively in that match, going ahead after just eight minutes, before succumbing to a second-half rally by the Stags and finishing 1-2 losers.
While many observers were keen to attribute the Tampines comeback to the half-time entry of Khairul Amri, who set up their first goal before scoring the second one himself, Zheng felt that his boys’ tentative behaviour after going ahead was no less likely a cause.
Noting that his team had also scored first in their League Cup preliminary round loss to Sengkang Punggol, he said it was imperative that his boys go into the field more confident of themselves against more experienced opponents like Home.
“We need to forget about our last game in the shortest time possible,” he remarked.
“I notice that we tend to play poorer football after we take the lead. Maybe it’s because the players are still young and too conservative in their playing approach, and they need to do more to break away from this.
“As their coach, I want them to go into every match as if they are warriors. They must not be obsessed by the narrow concept of victory and defeat, but instead pay attention to the entire process of playing football and become excellent fighters on the pitch.
“I don’t usually talk about whether whom I want to beat. But I have watched Home, and they are of a level comparable to Tampines, so our team will prepare as well as we can.”
The Talents will certainly need to prepare for a tough challenge, as Home are desperate to live up to the label of being title contenders.
Having made several bold transfer moves in the off-season, they have yet to piece everything together on the pitch, managing just one win from their opening three matches.
The pressure on coach Lee Lim Saeng’s shoulders was telling, not least from the almost apologetic tone of his voice after he had watched his side come from two goals down to force a 3-3 draw with form side Etoile FC in their last match.
Admitting he was unhappy with the result but refusing to let any of his players take the blame, Lee’s demeanour was at once reflective of the high standards he had set for his players and yet indicative of how far he would go to woo their faith.
His assistant S. Subramani certainly appears to have been won over, judging by his comments before the match.
The long-serving Protectors stalwart also expanded on the importance of getting a positive result from this match, seeing that the club has yet to celebrate a victory since 4 February, when they beat Albirex Niigata (Singapore).
“We have to go out there and get a result, because we are lagging behind Tampines,” said Subramani.
“Tampines are already getting 13 points, and we are only on five points now. In order to reduce the gap, it’s important to get a result.
“Obviously every coach wants to win, but I can see that our coach is very passionate about football. He wants to do well for Home United, and that’s why he was disappointed when we drew the match on Sunday.
“That will bring a positive influence to the team, as he wants the team to play in a more attacking way and express themselves on the pitch. He wants all the players to give their very best, and that’s something that can only be positive for us.”
Home will be without Cameroonian defender Valery Hiek, who is serving a one-match ban after he had picked up two yellow cards against Etoile.
Talented playmaker Shahdan Sulaiman is meanwhile forced out by injury, while Subramani was non-committal on whether Peres de Oliveira will be involved for this match after being repeatedly omitted from the matchday squad in recent weeks.
While Beijing did not have injury issues to report, there have been concerns over the players’ general physical condition after several of them have been seen suffering from cramps, sometimes as early as ten minutes into the second half.
Zheng admitted that this was something he had been working on, although he revealed that he was as bemused as anybody over why his charges tend to seize up so often.
“I have been trying to get the team to make adjustments to their playing approach, so that they don’t start at too high a pace,” he noted.
“We run shorter distances now in a game, so the players’ legs should not have been too heavily strained. Yet I notice there are still many who suffer from cramps.
“I think the problem is not physical, it’s mental. And I told the players as much, that they have to stop falling to the enemy within themselves.
“Maybe some players have a huge sense of responsibility, and they want to win too badly, but that will only cause stress. I want them to know that they should enjoy their football and not take victory and defeat so hard, because that will make it harder to perform.”
Subramani, on the other hand, was more inclined to follow the conventional wisdom when asked for his take on the observation.
Expressing his belief that the occurrences are likely to subside after some time, the former Singapore defender said that fans are likely to see the Talents at their best by the time the season is halfway through.
“Definitely, they will be affected by the weather,” he said of the Beijing boys.
“Players coming from a cooler climate will need time to settle down physically. I don’t think it’s a matter of their fitness, it’s more because of the different weather conditions that they’re falling victim to cramps.
“We must give them a couple of games before we can see their better side. But I’d rather we concentrate on our team.
“We know that we are a good side capable of getting a good result if we want to. Having said that, our coach has already watched them when they played Tampines, so he’ll have some ideas about how to get the result we want.” |
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