Yakob Sayuri: Living in the Moment
Dominance is shown in many forms, especially for Yakob.
I prefer to keep always high levels of performance. This is because to me there aren’t periods or games more important than others. — Jose Mourinho
As Indonesia lost 2–0 to Vietnam, the 2022 AFF Championship may seem to reveal the same story: another failed championship pursuit that highlights structural failure in Indonesian football. There are many justifiable concerns about Indonesian football, however, focusing too much on the negatives may make us fail to highlight the positive aspects; with the example I will bring upon are the players, that became more intelligent on solving problems at the pitch.
One of these example is Yakob Sayuri. The PSM wing-back had shown excellent performances throughout the tournament, showing dominance on attacking, defensive, and transition moments. In this article, I will highlight Yakob’s attributes and role in the Indonesian National Team according to it.
When first seeing Yakob, I was taken aback on seeing his dynamism. He is able to cover various sides of the pitch without turning down his intensity. Combined with his instinctive nature on reading the game, Yakob is living in each of Indonesia’s moments — not only that, he is also a potent problem solver!
Take a look on this clip against Thailand. Yakob’s intelligence and aggressiveness allows him to be utilized in various defensive roles: he covers Asnawi (the RB) when he jumps to press the ball, defending 1v2s when Thailand overloaded the wide area — and participating in the collective pressing afterwards, protecting the width and depth of the pitch when a Thailand player moved high and wide, and intercepting the loose ball. Indonesia tried to deny Thailand’s central overloads and suffocating them out wide, and Yakob is the man for the job.
Yakob scans, scans, and scans. He doesn’t scan just for the sake of it, he scans for the most relevant information at the pitch and act according to it. As you can see in this clip against Vietnam, he first noticed that the left-sided CB positioned himself very wide, and pressed the player. Then, he scans the space in behind, checking if there’s any opponent that tried to exploit the area. Finally, he anticipate the passing direction and managed to intercept the ball.
While Yakob has consistently shown quick decision making, he is sometimes struggled on reading many cues that happens at the same time. As we can see here, Yakob had a bit of tunnel vision when pressing a Vietnamese player. With no effective cover shadow, the player managed to pass the ball to Yakob’s marker that positioned himself in dangerous area.
Yakob’s never-ending run also makes him a reliable counter-presser; he press relentlessly when faced with his marker. This is partly why he is often chosen as a presser in Indonesia’s rest-defence system.
Attacking-wise, Yakob is a polar opposite of the player we’ve seen in PSM Makassar. His off-ball value is maximized by Tae-yong, where he often utilized to exploit spaces in-behind. With the ability to instinctively noticing gaps, his movement has been one of Indonesia’s most unpredictable weapon.
Take a look at this example against Vietnam. Dendy drifts wide while Saddil drops deep to get the ball, a signal for Yakob to exploit the inner channel. The set-piece scheme then broke down, however, Yakob continued to positioned himself in the final attacking line, running in behind following Marselino’s movement.
Again, this strength is utilized effectively against Vietnam in the first leg of the semifinal. Indonesia tried to overload a certain zone, giving Yakob time and space to run in behind. Also, look closer into the first video: Yakob slips in front of the Vietnamese player to make himself a viable crossing option.
As we’ve already seen Yakob’s off-ball brilliance, let’s shift into Yakob’s skills with the ball. He is somewhat awkward on the ball, probably stemming from club-level, where he is often utilized as a wing-back that barges forward after receiving a switch ball. He got away with this sub-par dribbling skill due to Liga 1’s level, however he needs to up his level when facing stronger opponents.
However, as told before, he is a fast thinker, and this is no exception on the ball. Yakob is fairly reliable at combo plays, knowing where to pass and move afterwards. As you can see, though, he still need to slightly adjust his body shape before passing the ball.
This is partly why Shin Tae-yong is confident on putting Yakob both as a right and centre midfielder. His ability to process information surrounding him, defend multiple players, actively disrupting the ball, and move intelligently offers many solutions to Indonesia’s problems on the pitch.
Yakob Sayuri is one of Indonesia’s main man in the AFF Championship, and his evolution at the national team speaks volumes on our players’ untapped potential. Talented dispositions and fast learning are one of the reason on why I don’t think Indonesian players are bad, and to put it even further, this may be a hopeful sign in which our national team will improve, eventually.
