KUALA LUMPUR: National coach Tan Cheng Hoe has asked for all sides to have faith and trust in Harimau Malaya’s coaching setup in concerted efforts to form a formidable squad for the AFF Cup challenge which takes place in November, despite the fact that the team will not have any naturalised players or those of mixed heritage.
Cheng Hoe replaced highly-rated Portuguese Nelo Vingada at the end of last year and he has said that despite many questions raised about the list of 24 players who have been called up for centralised training which begins on Monday (September 3), he is feeling calm and does not want to think too much about it.
In fact, the former Kedah coach has his reasons for not calling up any naturalised players or those of mixed heritage to be tested for the two upcoming class A international friendlies against Taiwan in Taipei on September 7 (Friday), and Cambodia in Phnom Penh three days later.
Looking at the list of players who have been called up, players of mixed heritage such as Matthew Davies, Brendan Gan, Khair Jones, Natxo Insa, Junior Eldstal and Darren Lok who have all featured for Harimau Malaya before this, have not been called up this time round.
In fact, Curran Ferns who currently plays for Shukothai FC in neighboring Thailand, and Pahang’s Mohamadou Sumareh who recently received his Malaysian citizenship, were also omitted.
Cheng Hoe explained that there are a few reasons to be taken into account beforehand, such as the fact that players called up must be familiar and receptive towards the tactics and style of play that he intends to implement.
"It is not a certainty that players who have a strong physical presence and are tall will be called up for national duty as sometimes such players are not the ones needed for our style of play.
"I prefer to select players who have a strong sense for tactics and who are skillful such as the Under-23 (U-23) squad players.
"However I need to stress that the selection of players is based on their performance for their club or state sides. If they have been playing very well, then I will call them up for the series of friendly matches we have lined up in October,” he said earlier today (Thursday) when contacted by NSTP Sport.
Apart from Taiwan and Cambodia, the national team will also play three friendly matches against Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan and Maldives in October and November.
Cheng Hoe, who likes his team playing a short, crisp passing game akin to the ‘tiki-taka’ Spanish style of play, will be applied just as he did when he was in charge of Kedah.
"Yes this is how we play the game. I have faith in the crop of players that we have called up as they have what it takes in terms of adapting to the style of play that I we want them to adopt,” he said.