MALACCA: A pre-season tour of Cambodia will brush up the jagged edges in Malacca United’s performance after coach, Eric Williams, lambasted the squad over a patchy performance in their 2-0 friendly win over Felcra on Saturday.
Malacca United team manager Datuk Yusoff Mahadi said the squad will leave for Cambodia after their third pre-season friendly against Negri Sembilan on Dec 29 and are expected to play two Cambodian sides and a team from the Vietnamese league there.
Yusof himself echoed Williams’ view of performance that left a lot to be desired against Felcra, which saw the team labour against the third tier side with goals from Alif Samsudin and Nurshamil Abd Ghani giving them the edge.
“Players have not clicked. Although we could see they were serious, there is still a lot to be improved,” said Yusoff.
He said the team would require a reasonable number of matches before the start of the season at the end of January as the majority of the 27-man squad currently are new signings.
“This team is almost a new-look team with just eight players from last season. We had this in mind when arranging this first game with a team from the third tier as we wanted to get the players suited with playing with each other,” said Yusoff.
The team’s latest signing from Johor Darul Ta’zim, experienced national striker Amri Yahyah, will only join the team after he is registered on Tuesday, while other players are still being eyed to fill-up the registration quota of 30 players.
Malacca United will continue their pre-season preparations with a friendly against Kuala Lumpur away on Dec 24, before the Negri Sembilan match to close the year.