Thai Port - Home of the Old Sharks by Dominick Cartwright: 2016

Thai Port - Home of the Old Sharks

by Dominick Cartwright

November, 2016

 

Thiago Cunha

When Thiago Cunha was announced as Port’s first new signing for 2016 hopes were high. Despite all the annoying play acting everyone saw this as a big name, and maybe a sign of more big TPL players to come. Thiago always a threat, even at 31 years old he could get 19 or 20 goals a season in the TPL. Surely he would get a hatful in Division 1? We sat around and tried to work out exactly how many goals he would get. 20 in the TPL equals 30 in Division 1? Seems about right maybe even 40? What’s the Division 1 goal scoring record again? That’s bound to go.

 

Early on in the season you give a striker with his background a bit of leeway, so a slow start wasn’t a massive problem. Unfortunately early on we saw the first of many stretchered trips Thiago would take to the sideline. We slowly realised this was not likely to be a record breaking year. I kept my misguided faith in him longer than most. I still thought he was worth a starting place up to about 10 games in. After a long goal drought it was more hope than expectation. In Thiago’s favour I don’t think he was 100% fit from the start. Port thought they were getting a bargain and Thiago probably thought he could get away with playing at 80% fit in Division 1, his leg injury seemed to be a constant problem. Chonburi you can consider yourself very lucky you didn’t get to see Thiago version 2016.

 

When you’re not scoring goals you overthink things. Thiago took an extra touch when previously he would have just hit balls first time. He missed goals he could’ve scored blindfolded in 2015. This saw him sidelined more and more as the season went on. Was there some light at the end of the tunnel? When he chipped the Maungthong keeper to put Port 1-0 up in the first leg of the League Cup, he had his moment of glory. For once in the 2016 season PAT Stadium went crazy for Thiago and for a moment everything was going to get better. Unfortunately it was just one moment.

 

When you are getting 20 goals a season you can dive all over the place and shout the odds. Teammates and fans will always forgive you. However when you’re not, you are just annoying the hell out of everyone. Thiago ended up getting 5 goals in 21 games. Towards the end of his time at Port he drifted on to the bench, deservedly so. He ended up leaving 5 games before the end of the season. Exactly what happened we don’t know, but the last act of Thiago at PAT Stadium was kicking the dressing room door and cursing his old Chonburi friend Jadet Melarp. If a player deserts your team 5 games before the end of the season, it’s normally shite. Oddly his exit ended up having a more positive effect on the team. Now he’s in Mumbai I just hope they get Thiago 2015 scoring regularly, not Thiago 2016 breaking doors.

Jadet Melarp

After a great start to the season Port faltered. The early form was built on very good individual performances saving a disjointed team. Coming up to mid-season Port stuttered throwing away a two goal lead at Bangkok F.C. and losing to Prachuap at home. The 2016 season that was meant to be a procession turned into a promotion battle. Another old shark Masahiro Wada, did a fair job at the end of last year nearly saving Port. He just wasn’t able to gel a squad of very good individual players together.

 

The Jadet Melarp appointment wasn’t met with much approval, most fans wanted to see our old coach Dusit tempted away from a mid-table Prajuap F.C. Jadet’s poor record at PTT didn’t inspire any confidence. The 2016 PTT team picked up a bit after Jadet left, only to slip back with a criminally poor run at the end of their season. Suggesting he might have been managing to hold a poor team together.

 

The new manager effect helped out Jadet he came in with a couple of good wins. Then away to a strong Thai Honda team Jadet had fans shaking their heads. When our Japanese winger was played in defence. The schoolboy error had no real logic to it, Gengki isn’t that good even playing where he should be. Out of position he was all over the place. Port lost, Thai Honda and Ubon UMT started to cement the top two spots and things looked difficult for Port.

 

After this hiccup Jadet took a bit more control and with a couple more wins, we were back on track. Port were playing a less disjointed game but still fighting for promotion. Misfiring Thiago wasn’t happy and attacking midfielder Pakorn often Port’s saviour with winning free kicks was intent on never passing the ball after he made 5 yards. The height of Pakorn’s arrogance and poor temper came when he booted the ball into Zone A in reaction to getting subbed. This tantrum lost possession for Port. Jadet came out in the press saying he needed to stop throwing his toys out of the pram if he wanted to stay in the team. Fair comment and he seemed to calm down the situation.

 

One reason to expect good things from Jadet was his history of managing Thiago, but he was used to Thiago 2015. However the new model 2016 Thiago expected to get played even without the goals. Thiago probably ended up doing the best thing he could do, helping his old friend Jadet by walking out the broken door. Was this a masterstroke from Jadet? I doubt it. I think it was probably just a result of Thiago threatening to leave, and Jadet not caving in to his demands to start every game. This exit gave us the chance to bring back another foreign player. The replacement was a holding midfielder Wagner. He added a bit of back bone to the team and rescued a bit of team spirit. Wagner was exactly the player Port needed. Why we got rid of him mid-season no one knows.

 

Jadet binned off the FA Cup Game against Sukothai playing a team of subs. I never like seeing this, but it did pay off. The next game saw Port win 2-1 home against a recently promoted Ubon UMT team. This left Port only needing one point from the last two games. Jadet has a record he can be happy with. It wasn’t his team but he came in and did a decent job.

 

Jadet has just been confirmed as Port’s new coach for 2017. Will he get to build a team? I doubt it. Madam Pang’s management group will probably search out a group of marquee names again, rather than building a team. Under the new Madam Pang regime, I’m not sure the Coach has that much control over who they bring in. And most coaches aren’t normally around long enough to find out how to put a team together. I think he’s a fair choice for 2017. We are better off with someone who is used to the set up under Pang. He will have to make it to Songkran next year to equal the longest serving manager of the Pang era, Masahiro Wada’s lengthy ten month spell. I’m interested to see if Chonburi have a new coach down the line. Considering Port’s hiring policy maybe Therdsak will come along to replace Jadet in 2018.