The Malaysian Under-16 team need to make drastic improvements and upped the ante if they want to continue further in the on-going AFF U16 Championship here in Surabaya.
While it was good that they won their first three points of the competition yesterday, still their performance against Brunei DS left a lot to be desired considering that they still have a match against unpredictable Singapore tomorrow and then laborious Laos in their final game in the group.
Head coach Raja Azlan Shah realised too well what’s in store and without having to go into specific, knows that he has to whip the team into shape even though he has less than 24hours to do it.
“The team lacked pace. We are giving the chance for all players to get some playing time and our target is for the players to come up to the level that we have set,” said Raja Azlan.
“But unfortunately for some of the players they have not reach that level and that is something which we need to work on.”
But whether the current Malaysian team at the on-going AFF U16 Championship is the first, second or third national youth side, still there has to be some system to their play.
Over the course of the last two matches, there were constant mistakes and some negative football being played.
And when this is compared to the might of Indonesia and systematic Thailand, it is a worrying factor.
“We have issues with having players of equal abilities. Those players coming as reserves are just struggling,” he added.
Malaysia will play Singapore tomorrow afternoon at the Joko Samudro Stadium at 1600hrs (Malaysian time).
