U23 Malaysia has just gone through a forgettable U23 Asia tournament. The terrible performance they showed made former Malaysian players extremely disappointed.
Malaysia ended the 2024 U23 Asian Finals with 3 losses, finishing at the bottom of the table. If compared with the other 3 groups, Malaysia is the worst team. In the entire tournament, only two teams did not win any points, U23 Malaysia and UAE, but the West Asian representative had a better goal difference.
U23 Malaysia became the only team in the tournament to receive a penalty in every match. Adding 3 penalty situations in the pre-tournament period, they have received 6 11-meter penalties in the last 5 matches. 6/9 of their losses at this stage took place on penalty kicks.
Through the above statistics, it can be seen that U23 Malaysia went through a disastrous tournament. They are suffering the wrath of domestic public opinion.
Subramaniam, a former defender of the Malaysian national team, expressed frustration: “I say these words as a coach and as a brother. Instead of being busy on social media, it is better for them to focus on improving their performance.
I also see a lot of players focusing on their hair color rather than what happens on the field. As a player, football knowledge is more important than hair.”
At the U23 Asian Finals, Malaysia played 3 matches and lost all 3
The frustration of Subramaniam, who has appeared 7 times for the Malaysian national team, comes because of the repeated mistakes made by the Malaysian defense, despite being warned many times.
Sharing the same opinion are Mahali Jasuli and Razman Roslan, two other former Malaysian players. Mahali Jasuli frankly criticized: “That is a mistake that should not be made. We could see from his (Ubaidullah Shamsul, who fouled Wei Hao) face that he lost control. His two hands continuously pulled the opponent.”
Razman Roslan believes that Malaysia’s strong U23 defenders play each other individually, very sporadically and lacking communication: “The first mistake is no communication. Entering the penalty area but the players do not connect with each other.
This is a mistake that to me is very stupid. As a defender, he must know the ball belongs to the Vietnamese attacker. With just a slight touch, the striker will fall immediately.”
