JOHOR BAHRU: Kedah coach Ramon Marcote is optimistic that his charges can put yesterday’s 2-1 Charity Shield defeat at the hands of Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) behind them.
In fact the Spanish coach is confident that the Red Eagles can bounce back and return to winning ways when they host neighbors Perak in the second Malaysia Super League match at the Darul Aman Stadium on Wednesday.
“I have identified a few weaknesses and mistakes that were made and I can assure that we will be addressing these issues before we take on Perak. I am confident that the players will be able to recover from the defeat to JDT and play to win at home come Wednesday,” he said right after the Charity Shield match.
During the match at the Larkin Stadium, Kedah managed to take the lead against all odds thanks to Spanish forward Pablo Pallares in the 15th minute, however hosts JDT were able to get back into the match and win it with goals from veteran Argentine forward Luciano Figueroa in the 28th minute and Marcos Antonio (58th minute).
Speaking further on the lost to Ulisses Morais side, Marcote admitted that his players failed to play to their strengths and ended up being punished by their opponents.
"When playing against a team like JDT, obviously it is going to be a tough match and we had to change our strategy by putting Baddrol Bakhtiar in the middle instead of on the flank.
"We knew that JDT would be putting a lot of pressure and they attacked from the left and right flanks with fast, penetrating runs that left us struggling to try to stop them in their tracks.
"Our plan in the first half was focused more on packing our defense to cope with their attacking forays into our half, however they still managed to score because we failed to mark their forwards out of the game,” he said.
Marcote also admitted that their star player Liridon Krasniqi was not 100 per cent match fit as he had only trained for about two weeks with the team.
“He did try to put in the best performance he could but I am satisfied because he did make contributions during the match,” said Marcote.