KUALA LUMPUR − Newly-minted Harimau Malaya’s head coach Kim Pan-Gon has yet to implement the high-intensity and high-tempo gameplay into the national squad.
This was due to the fact that the South Korean-born gaffer is still in the midst of evaluating his charges’ capabilities despite realising that the aforementioned gameplay is gaining traction in today’s modern football era.
“High intensity or even high tempo of gameplay is very important nowadays but we need to understand a lot of things, including the physical (capability) of our sides, understanding the gameplay or even the tactics of our opponents.
“After all, we are going to try our best in developing the base that we have,” he told reporters when met on the first day of Harimau Malaya’s training session ahead of three friendly matches in Singapore next week.
The 52-year-old coach admitted he did not want to put his skates on in instilling his gameplay vision into the minds of his players but promised to help them grasp the idea well from time to time.
“We can’t simply just go there because it will fall down, for sure. We are going to see what we have and try to catch up from time to time,” he said.
Malaysia is scheduled to face the Philippines on March 23 and hosts Singapore on March 26 in the International Tier 1 friendly matches at the Singapore National Stadium before playing Singapore League side Albirex Niigata on March 28 at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
The players are scheduled to train at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium for eight days before they depart to Singapore on March 22. – Bernama, March 15, 2022
