Thể Công Viettel coach Velizar Popov under pressure after three straight defeats

Thể Công Viettel host Bắc Ninh at Hàng Đẫy at 19:15 on 23 October (Vietnam time) in round 5 of V.League 1, Vietnam's top flight, on the back of three straight league defeats. Last season's runners-up have three points from four games, sit 11th of 14 and are only two points clear of bottom club Đồng Nai. Thanh Niên says coach Velizar Popov's position is "shaky" and that he will struggle to avoid the sack if he cannot turn things around. That is the newspaper's assessment; none of the sources reports a decision by the club.

Four games, three defeats

The strangest detail, as Thanh Niên points out, is that every one of their four opponents had a player sent off, making Viettel the first team in V-League history to play against ten men in each of their first four games. They still lost the last three. Against Công an Hà Nội (CAHN) they conceded a late winner despite playing against ten men for the latter part of the second half; against Công an TP.HCM they trailed and could not equalise in roughly 20 minutes, stoppage time included, against ten men. Thanh Niên calls it the club's worst start since returning to the top flight in 2019.

Bongda24h counts five games without a win in all competitions, four of them defeats. KBVN+ data shows that run includes a 1-1 draw with Melbourne Victory and a 0-1 loss at Persib in the AFC Champions League Two, Asia's second-tier club competition, where Viettel are third in Group E with one point.

Two diagnoses

Thanh Niên focuses on the football and on Popov himself. It describes the team as "bland and lifeless", relying mostly on crosses, and says that after two years the Bulgarian has not built a side able to control games even with an extra man. The coach once known for his fire now looks "sad and somewhat resigned" on the touchline, the paper writes. It recalls that Popov won three cup trophies with Thanh Hóa and took Viettel to second place, but also that he left Thanh Hóa after 11 league games without a win, and warns that the club "is not in the habit of waiting too long", having parted with former coaches Thạch Bảo Khanh and Nguyễn Đức Thắng.

Bongda24h looks at the squad. It argues that Viettel have not replaced Brazilian striker Lucao, that Rimario and Ribamar have yet to deliver, and that around ten new signings have not gelled. The team leans on long balls and crosses and stalls against deep defences. Even so, the site warns that changing the coach may not fix problems a successor would also inherit.

A busy run of fixtures

Times are Vietnam time, from KBVN+ fixture data. Three of the next four league games are at home, but Thanh Niên notes that Thanh Hóa and SLNA are awkward opponents away from home.

What comes next

Bắc Ninh (four points, 10th) drew 0-0 with Đồng Nai last time out, and a Viettel win would lift Popov's side above them. Pre-match details are on the match page; our report on the round-4 defeat by Công an TP.HCM is here, and the full round is on the V.League 1 page.