What did Nghe An fans in Malaysia say before the match against Vietnam?
(Baonghean.vn) - "Watching the Malaysian national team play in recent matches, I see that they have a squad of 7 players, who are rarely substituted. Mr. Tan only changes 4 positions in the attack line, when he needs to change the attack plan", a fan from Nghe An who is doing business and living in the capital Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) shared with us.
Malaysia is known as “Asia in miniature”, a place where many Asian cultures converge. According to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), from 1990 to 2017, more than 2.8 million people migrated from Vietnam to foreign countries.
Malaysia is one of the top countries in terms of the number of Vietnamese people settling here with 85,000 people, just behind prominent names such as: America, Australia, Canada, France, Korea, Germany. There are quite a few people from Nghe An living and working in Malaysia, many of them join the SLNA Supporters Club here and often read news from their homeland through Nghe An newspaper, they quite like the Sports section.
Some changes
“Nghe An Newspaper has had a very detailed analysis of the strength of naturalized player Shahrel (13), but he just suffered a groin injury and cannot play in the friendly match with Sri Lanka,” said a fan named Minh from Kuala Lumpur.
According to Mr. Minh: “The 32-year-old center-back Aidil Zafuan wore the familiar number 7 shirt to pair with Shahrul Saad (number 3) in the friendly match against Sri Lanka, but in my opinion, Mr. Tan Cheng-Hoe will still use the defense line consisting of the center-back pair Adam Nor Azlin (5) and Shahrul Saad (number 3). The two wings will be number 2 right-back Matthew Davies and number 6 left-back La'Vere Corbin-Ong, of course the goalkeeper will still be Farizal Marlias.”
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| Malaysia's starting lineup for the friendly match against Sri Lanka. Photo: FAM |
According to Mr. Minh, the two central midfielders have been Brendan Gan (at that time wearing the number 6 shirt) and Azam Azih (number 8), but observing several training sessions, this number 8 is also injured. According to SLNA fans in Kuala Lumpur, left midfielder Safawi Rasid (number 11) is the 7th player, who has started in the last 3 matches of the Malaysian national team. "Leading tiger" Norshahrul Idlan Talaha is the center forward in the 4-2-3-1 formation, but this number 9 is only physically fit enough to play for about 60 minutes.
Norshahrul Idlan Talaha's usual replacement is Akhyar Rashid (19) or Partiban Janasekaran (15), with the latter scoring a hat-trick against Sri Lanka in a 6-0 win in the right midfield role in place of Shahrel. The attacking midfielder position is usually played by No. 20 Syafiq Ahmad or No. 14 Saymer Kutty Abba.
In the Malaysian national team, midfielder Saymer Kutty Abba is a versatile player like Quang Hai of Vietnam, when needed he can switch to play as a winger. He has often replaced naturalized player Mohamadou Sumareh. In addition, number 16 Daniel Amier Norhisham is also occasionally arranged by coach Tan to play as a right midfielder.
Expected starting lineup
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| Naturalized players have made the Malaysian national team much stronger. Photo: FAM |
Thus, there are 2 cases where the chance of entering the field is 50/50, namely naturalized midfielder Mohamadou Sumareh (13) and central midfielder Azam Azih (number 8). The appearance and presence in the starting lineup of 3 naturalized players from Malaysia, including 2 full-backs Matthew Davies, La'Vere Corbin-Ong and "sweeper" Brendan Gan will make the match speed much higher than the 3 previous meetings.