KUALA LUMPUR – Poor planning from the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) is to be blamed for Harimau Malaya’s 2020 AFF Cup debacle, says the independent investigation body formed recently to investigate the national team’s appalling performance in Singapore.
Chairman of the independent body, Datuk Dell Akbar Khan says inadequate preparation time due to the Malaysia Cup that lasted until November had affected the national team’s training schedule.
“Minimum training durations should be allocated to allow players to gel with their teammates well.
“There should be discussions between FAM and league organisers, namely the Malaysian Football League (MFL) and participating teams to allow players sufficient time to train together ahead of international tournaments.
“Forcing players to adapt to different playing styles in such a short period of time is ineffective.
“There wasn’t a sufficient training period to allow players to understand the tactical changes that were set by the previous coach.
He also said that failure to call up several “core players” proved to be the team’s downfall when they headed to Singapore for the AFF Cup.
“The selection of several players that were not ready for the international stage was visible during the tournament.
“Limited technical skills, experience, and physical conditioning had resulted in the players underperforming during the matches against Indonesia and Vietnam,” said Dell.
He added that the naturalisation strategies currently in place for the national team are similarly ineffective.
“A more thorough and structured naturalisation program will need to be implemented to ensure more desirable outcomes in the future,” he said.
Dell also said the lack of harmony within the team is something that needs to be addressed.
“According to players in the team, there is no sense of togetherness. The local players circle around each other, while naturalised players have their own cliques.” Dell added.
In terms of post-match reports, Dell mentioned that the current reporting system in place was haywire.
“For instance, it was difficult for me to conduct the investigation due to the poor state of reports that we received.
“Moving forward, we suggest that FAM put in place a more streamlined method for reports.
“By having templates for each department’s reports, we can create a reliable system that can monitor each player based on evidence.
“The coach has to be trained to submit a more comprehensive report that is more factual, which has not been done previously,” said Dell. – The Vibes, January 21, 2022.
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