The Elephants could just be "heavy" on one side of Thomas Dooley's squad.
And the Sri Pahang FC head coach is concerned he may not have the all round strength needed for the M-League challenge.
The American-German admitted that Pahang lack the "bench power" to make the Elephants heavyweight contenders.
The 59-year-old former Philippines national coach said: "We have a gap between the first team and the second players."
Dooley, who previously played as a defensive midfielder for FC Kaiserslautern, Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke 04, said he is aware of Pahang's budget constraint, and that they are no longer East Coast giants.
"We're not spending money like JDT, Kedah or Selangor who have a big team roster," he added.
Alluding to his difficulty in getting "good" players, Dooley said: "I had a list (of players who he wanted). I watched the games and saw some good players just to end up losing them because they were sold.
"We lost three to four starting players who we had hoped to sign for the new season.
"We're not the favourites (in the league) but of course we would want to be there in third or fourth but is it realistic?
"On paper, we are the underdogs who will try to bite, to hurt the other teams but it's not easy.
"We want to be more successful and stronger than last year. Last year we finished eighth, so let's climb up a bit."
Before the M-League kicks off on March 5, Pahang will play pre-season matches against Terengganu FC II tomorrow followed by a game against UiTM FC on Tuesday and Negri Sembilan on Friday.