KUALA LUMPUR: The FA of Malaysia (FAM) have stressed that expectations on the national team and its world ranking need to be realistic.
Harimau Malaya's rankings have now dropped to No. 138 after previously reaching No. 130 in November.
Indonesia (No. 134) have now overtaken Malaysia for the first time in six years.
"After we beat India and Kyrgyzstan, we aim to beat Oman and Jordan, but it's not realistic for us to be at that level yet. We have seen improvements in the rankings, but adjustments are still needed," said Hamidin yesterday.
"Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose but we should not be going down (in the rankings).
"Indonesia are performing well now and are peaking but three months ago Fifa had praised us as one of the teams that had shown significant improvement in the world rankings.
"Sometimes, when we win, we tend to forget (and get carried away), immediately we aim for the World Cup."
The national squad's rankings took a hit after losing 4-0 to Jordan and 1-0 to Bahrain, and taking a 3-3 draw with South Korea in the AFC Asian Cup in January.
A brace of 2-0 defeats to Oman in the 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers in March further diminished the squad's ranking points.