Football Tribe SEA Editor
Buriram may have lost their Champions League qualifier against Shanghai SIPG, but their trip may not prove to be entirely unfruitful. Bozidar Bandovic’s men fell short last season and suffered their first trophyless campaign in their modern guise mostly due to a failure to ignite their firepower up front, and the Montenegrin boss may have just slipped us a little blueprint as to how he plans to re-energize the squad ahead of his third full season with the Thunder Castle.
The seven-time Thai League Champions started with an oddly attack-minded lineup in terms of personnel, even if they quickly reverted to a defensive posture on the pitch. Wingbacks Sasalak and Narubadin were quick to fall back and form a back five with Andres Tunez, Pansa Hemviboon, and Rattanakorn Maikami in the middle. However, under normal conditions, the players Bandovic sent out onto the pitch in Shanghai represent a radical transformation and a far greater commitment to attack for the upcoming campaign.
The first significant change has to be the side’s two new strikers, Bernardo Cuesta and Ricardo Bueno. Both arrive with decent goal records in South America and will be hoping to succeed where Buriram’s imports last year had failed. In this lineup, they were joined by both Supachok Sarachart and Suphanat Mueanta, who looked to start their runs from deeper and sneak into channels of space, effectively forming a ‘front four.’
This ‘front four’ is enabled by two other moves in the side’s defensive setup. The first comes in the form of their AFC Quota signing, South Korea Jung Jae-Yong from Pohang Steelers, who replaces Hajime Hosogai at the base of the midfield. What Buriram lost in Hosogai’s guile and experience they have gained massively in Jae-Yong’s stamina, an indomitable work-rate that enables him to do the work of two players in the center of the park.
Secondly, Rattanakorn Maikami was moved into the back three, with the responsibility of carrying the ball into midfield and stepping up to add numbers in the middle of the park. This hybrid role allows Buriram to create an overload in the middle of the pitch and is a smart use of the players at their disposal. Rattanakorn, whose versatility has allowed him to play across the midfield and at full-back in the past, should have no issues adapting to this role.
However, Jung Jae-Yong didn’t exactly cover himself in glory in the side’s first game against Shanghai SIPG, showing limited ability on the ball compared to other AFC imports in the league. Additionally, playing with such an offensive-orientated posture is slightly risky but best with players available to Bandovic. It is arguable that possibly adding a creative midfielder to supply a standard front three, instead of transitioning to a four-man forward line, would have been a better option to reinvigorate the side’s attack without throwing the rest of the team out of balance.
Regardless, what we saw from Buriram on Tuesday was just a small hint of how they could end up lining up next season. The side will need to make significant changes on the system that saw them stagnate last season, and seeing how the most powerful force in Thai football responds to disappointment will surely be a highlight this season.
