Before Lady Luck says Bye Bye..

After a third of the season, the media and fans alike have started to brand HU as the title favourites and seem to disregard the challenge posed by tampines n SAFFC who are 2 pts and 7pts adriff but both teams have a game in hand. The big question - Will HU be able to sustain their title challenge?

Below are my thoughts of the team based on the 7-8 games tat I caught them in action.

If there is one player that stood out for the Sleague Leaders, it has to be Lionel Lewis and I am postive all fans alike will agree with me. The 1.88m goalie has performed heroics to propel HU up the table and he is the main reason why HU has the defence has only conceded a miserable 9 goals. When HU played SAF and tampines, Lionel repelled what was thrown at him on numerous occassions and laid the platform for HU victories over those games. Without these 6 points, HU would have been in midtable position. You will be surprised that when HU played the minnows like gombak, liaoning, Lionel was also called into action. To win the title, HU has to ensure that Lionel stays injury free and available for all the games, including those against Sengkang or Korean.

With Vincent Subramaniam at the helm this season, we see a new HU formation of 4-3-1-2, a formation that has not been used in the Steve Darby or Zolst Buch regime. With only 3 midfielders, it has restricted HU to minimal possession in most of the games they played in.

Dakitar might be a combative n aggressive player but no way can he control the middle of the park alone. Thats when Lions internationals Sharil Ishal and Jiayi comes into action. However, it leaves a gap on the flanks when the protectors move forward as their fullbacks, Jummat and Rosman arent as adventurous as their predecessor Sivakumar or Immran Sahib. This has resulted in HU relying heavily on the pace of Ludovick and Indra upfront, a tatic, that has saw them defeated Tampines and SAF despite defending for long periods of the game.

Speaking of Indra, I seriously doubt his ability as a playmaker. Being the first local born player to score 100 sleague goal, he is not the at all well known for his dribbling, vision and passing. By putting him in the hole behind the front 2, the coach is wasting indra's talent and hence we have missed his goals contribution.

Qiu Li has been impressive last season for the young lions but in truth he has been a disappointment this season. The chinese has been rather quiet in the games so far, not helped by Vincent's rotation policy upfront. No doubt he is a great target man, but the coach seems to prefer Ludovick upfront alone, with Qiu Li and Indra supporting from behind. Vicent also has the tendency to leave Kone on the bench and I wonder why. The young Ivorian who usually plays on the left, has explosive pace and maybe tats why Vincent choose to let him come on as a subsitute. Kone is a too shiny a gem to leave on the bench.

IMHO, HU has a potent strikeforce, but it has not been deployed to its fullest potential. They should drop either Qiu Li or Indra and play with onli two upfront. Push Sharil to the right flank and partner Jiayi with Dakitar in the middle of the park with Kone starting on the left of midfield for a more tried and tested 4-4-2 formation.

Another achillies heel facing the protector is their lack of depth on the bench, especially in the defence department. Their reserve goalie, Ridzuan, was awful 2 seasons ago when he had the chance to prove his worth. And should Mani or Dakitar become unavilable, who can the coach call upon to replace the defensive pillars? The youngsters that have came in for the odd game or two like Hairul Hadar or Syaqir Sulaiman hasnt shown that they are capable of filling the boots.

The league table does not lie and although HU are at the top of the table, the most die-hard of the protectors fan will tell you that they are not playing the most attractive football in the league currently. They need to act fast before lady luck deserts them..