\n KUALA LUMPUR, A lack of match fitness is the main factor behind the national Under-23 squad’s failure to give their best in the 2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-23 Asian Cup in Qatar, said Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) technical director Scott O’Donell.<\/p>\n
He attributed that to the Harimau Muda players’ lack of playing time and the long transition time of the Malaysia League (M-League).<\/p>\n
Malaysia returned home without any points after losing all their three Group D matches – 2-0 to Uzbekistan, 2-0 to Vietnam and 2-1 to Kuwait.<\/p>\n
“If we look at the statistics, not many players in this squad had any playing time with their clubs in last season’s Super League campaign…only four of them did.<\/p>\n
“Goalkeeper Sikh Izhan Nazrel played for 2,250 minutes with Negeri Sembilan FC; Mukhairi Ajmal had 1,684 minutes with Selangor FC; T. Saravanan 1,252 minutes with Kuala Lumpur City; and Safwan Mazlan 1,063 minutes with Terengganu FC,’ he said in a statement shared by FAM today.<\/p>\n
As for the long transiti
\non time of the (M-League), he said the players had to wait a long time for the 2024\/25 season to start on May 10, thus affecting their fitness levels ahead of the Under-23 Asian Cup.<\/p>\n
As such, O’Donell stressed that FAM should look at restructuring age-group tournaments in the country so that the young players would get to play in more competitive matches.<\/p>\n
He also hoped that the national Under-23 squad would make better use of the FIFA international window by holding more international friendlies.<\/p>\n
“We need to give them more international exposure to play as a team and not just prepare our teams in an ad hoc manner just before the Under-23 tournaments like the AFC (Asian Cup) and SEA Games.<\/p>\n
“If we cannot arrange an international friendly for the Under-23 team, we should at least have a training camp to give the coaches a chance to get to know the players during every FIFA international window period,’ he said.<\/p>\n
O’Donell said he and the Harimau Muda head coach, Juan Torres Garrido will prepare a full report
\non the Under-23 Asian Cup failure to be presented to the FAM National Team Management Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUALA LUMPUR, A lack of match fitness is the main factor behind the national Under-23 squad’s failure to give their best in the 2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-23 Asian Cup in Qatar, said Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) technical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n