Vietnam National Team receives a red alert from key forwards

This V-League season reveals a worrying paradox where no domestic striker has scored more than 3 goals, while foreign players dominate the top scorer rankings overwhelmingly.

This year's V-League season exposes a concerning reality: no local striker has netted more than 3 goals after several rounds. The scoring leaderboard clearly shows a significant gap between foreign players and Vietnamese players, highlighting a serious decline in the domestic attacking line's goal-scoring ability.

The top scorer race is almost exclusively dominated by foreign players. Alan Sebastiao Alexandre leads with 11 goals for Hanoi Police, far ahead of others. Following him are names like Imoh Fred Friday, Tagueu Tadjo, Lucas Vinicius, and Leonardo Artur – all foreign forwards. Among players with 4 or more goals, only Nguyen Hoang Duc appears, but he is a central midfielder.

Having a midfielder as the rare hope among domestic players on the scoring chart indicates a real crisis in the striker position. NThe most anticipated Vietnamese strikers such as Tien Linh and Tuan Hai have yet to meet expectations. Tien Linh has only 3 goals and has gone through a long goal drought, while Tuan Hai maintains a modest scoring rate and is no longer as explosive as before.

Declining form, instability, and competition pressure from foreign players are causing domestic strikers to increasingly lose influence within their clubs. In many matches, they sit on the bench or are played out of their natural positions, resulting in lost scoring rhythm. When chances arise, their confidence is no longer enough to make a difference.

Even young talents like Dinh Bac, who impressed strongly with the U23 Vietnam team, have yet to score in the V-League. Nguyen Xuan Son shows impressive goal-scoring ability in cup competitions, but domestically, he has had limited playing time and has not yet unlocked the offense.

This situation places Coach Kim Sang Sik in a difficult position. The Vietnam national team cannot compete internationally with an ineffective central striker line. The fact that no domestic forward has scored more than 3 goals this V-League season is not just a dry statistic but a warning bell about the imbalance and lack of depth in Vietnamese football during the upcoming rebuilding phase.