Pan Gon urges Harimau Malaya players to cut out technical mistakes

KUALA TERENGGANU - National team Head Coach Kim Pan Gon has warned his players to cut out technical mistakes when facing Papua New Guinea in a Tier 1 international friendly at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium, Kuala Nerus, next Tuesday.

After conducting a full evaluation, Pan Gon found that individual errors and poor decision-making were among the factors that affected the performance of the Harimau Malaya against the Solomon Islands, last Wednesday.

From the tactical aspects, the South Korean said he was very satisfied after the team managed to dominate the entire match.

"I think if we want to play a high quality (game) we need to reduce these kinds of small technical problems such as individual mistakes and decision-making problems, so we must improve this.

"But in terms of tactical, I’m very satisfied, we were confident and dominated the game. We saw the statistics, there was zero shooting on our goal, they (Solomon Islands) totally never had a proper build up, they can’t play, this is what we are looking for,” he said when met here.

Last Wednesday, the Harimau Malaya came from behind to beat the world number 134 Solomon Islands 4-1 in a Tier 1 international friendly at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium, thus marking Malaysia’s third consecutive victory in international friendlies since last March.

Commenting further, Pan Gon said Malaysian-Finnish midfielder Nooa Laine, who arrived here last Tuesday, has the potential to be in the squad next Tuesday, in addition to another defender to fill the void left by injured Natxo Insa and Muhamad Feroz Baharudin.

"We still have a few players to be carefully monitored, let’s see in the coming days. If they are not available we will protect them but still we are keen to prepare well against Papua New Guinea,” he said.

Based on the world rankings, Malaysia are ranked 138th while Papua New Guinea 159th. - BERNAMA