Irfan ready for any role in China

IRFAN Zakaria will happily continue to play out of position if it means sealing a spot in the final squad for the AFC Under-23 Championship in China next month.

Usually deployed as a defensive midfielder by Kuala Lumpur, Irfan was part of a three-man defence in the Malaysian team that won a silver medal at the Sea Games in August.

But Irfan does not mind playing as a centre-back as long as he remains part of national youth coach Ong Kim Swee’s plans.

“I usually play in defence whenever I join up with Under-23 squad so I need to adapt again to that position and I will do my best,” said Irfan, who helped KL win the 2017 Premier League title and earn promotion to the Super League.

“The coach knows better where he wants me to play and I will give it 100 per cent no matter which position I play.”

Irfan, 22, said he still needs to work on his understanding with fellow centre-backs Adam Nor Azlin and Adib Zainuddin after Malaysia conceded goals in each of their four group games at the Sea Games, including against Brunei and Laos.

Any lapses will be punished severely by Malaysia’s Group C opponents Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Jordan at the AFC Under-23 Championship.

“We need to improve our defending because we let in a goal in every group game at the Sea Games,” said Irfan.

“That should be a lesson to us not to underestimate any opponent. We need to focus from the first minute to the last. “The teams we will face in China are tough because the players from these teams are all physically strong.

“When we go to South Korea for the next phase of training (from Dec 17), we will play against physicallystrong teams and we need to use that experience to our advantage.”

Kim Swee has no plans at the moment to use Irfan in midfield as he has quite a few options available to him in that area.

“I prefer to use Irfan in defence rather than leave him on the bench because we already have a lot of midfielders.

“He is just as good playing as a centre-back and I value players who can play in more than one position.” Devinder Singh