Coach Chu Đinh Nghiêm: 'Ronaldo has not met the expectations of Hai Phong Club'

Coach Chu Đinh Nghiêm pointed out the reason why Hai Phong lost the match against The Cong Viettel on March 15.

Speaking after the 0-1 loss to The Cong Viettel in the 16th round of V-League, Coach Chu Đinh Nghiêm of Hai Phong Club stated:

“I think today both teams played devotedly and everyone wanted to get 3 points. But The Cong - Viettel performed better and seized their opportunities. In the first half, we also had one or two chances but failed to capitalize on them. Therefore, I believe their victory was entirely deserved.”

The Vietnamese coach also frankly pointed out the personnel difficulties of the Port team before this match:“Today, we lost two key positions. Trieu Viet Hung was suspended due to receiving three yellow cards, and Nhật Minh suffered a muscle strain right before the match.”

“In football, losing one or two pillar positions makes finding replacements very difficult. Hai Phong lost two important foreign players in their playing style from the first leg: Friday and Bicou. Currently, we are trying to patch up the lineup, but you also see that the foreign player Ronaldo Fletcher has not met expectations. Hai Phong is not a team with a deep squad, so losing a few pillars makes replacing them and ensuring lineup quality very challenging.”

“I reminded the players to focus on the opponents’ key players like Khuất Van Khang, Nguyễn Đức Hoàng Minh, who have excellent crossing ability. Lucao also has good heading ability... But in just a moment, we paid the price for what we had anticipated.”

Speaking further about upcoming plans, Coach Chu Đinh Nghiêm revealed Hai Phong will have an additional foreign player: “We are waiting for a new foreign player. Today, he just flew in and the team will have three days off before returning to training. We will focus on integrating this foreign player’s position to improve the lineup.”

Finally, Coach Chu Đinh Nghiêm also shared some thoughts about the goalkeeper position of the Vietnam national team —which currently has five candidates, including Hai Phong’s goalkeeper Đinh Triệu: “The most important thing is the philosophy of the national team coach, what kind of play they want from the players. Each goalkeeper has their own strengths; Đinh Triệu needs to strive to seize his opportunity,” he said.