Setting the right priorities

Sathia to focus on assessing players and not on winning friendly matches

PETALING JAYA: Selangor coach B. Sathianathan (pic) is not losing sleep over his side’s winless run after two pre-season matches.

The Red Giants were held to a 1-1 draw by Penang on Dec 22 and suffered a 2-0 loss to PKNP in Manjung last Saturday as they continue their rebuilding process.

The Klang Valley outfit are in the midst of testing import players and Sathianathan said he has channelled all his focus on assessing his players rather than worrying over results of the pre-season matches.

The former national squad coach added that the team have started their pre-season build-up without internationals Muhammad Syahmi Safari, Syazwan Zainon and imports Rufino Segovia and Endrick Dos Santos.

“I wanted to assess the others and see how they react in different situations like when the team lose ball possession and so on. It was also a good platform to test players who are attending trials with us,” said Sathianathan.

“We used most of our new signings in this game and I can see that we were tactically lacking but this is something which can be fixed. Our local strikers were not effective and it’s the same problem with the other teams in the M-League.”

“This is not a big problem though as our fire power up front will be sorted by the quality that Rufino will bring into the team. We also made 380 passes in the game and it’s a very promising ahead of the season.”

The 33-time Malaysia Cup champi- ons, who have the fourth worst defensive record after conceding 39 goals in the Super League last season, are also in the midst of bolstering the backline.

Sathianathan said the team were close to signing Czech Republic-born Vietnamese Michal Nguyen and would test two defenders – from Australia and South Korea – in their upcoming friendlies.

“We are 90% done on signing the Vietnamese player for our Asean player slot and we are looking at another for the Asian slot. We’ll have players from Australia and South Korea attending trials,” added Sathianathan.

The Red Giants finished eight in the 12-team Super League standings this season and failed to get past the Malaysia Cup group stage but showed their pedigree by finishing runners-up in the FA Cup.