Hodak scratching his head as he has to start from scratch with U-19 team

PETALING JAYA: It’s back to the drawing board for national Under19 coach Bojan Hodak as he prepares his squad for two major assignments this year.

The team have kickstarted their preparations early for the 2019 AFF Championship in July and the 2020 AFC Championship Qualifiers in September.

Hodak has called up 28 players to attend the first phase of centralised training and selection camp at the Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya beginning tomorrow.

The Croatian coach said he has to start from scratch to rebuild the team and the Sanix Cup in March will be the players’ first test.

“We have a list of players we want to test. This squad is made up of a new generation of players and only some have the experience of playing in international matches,” said Hodak.

“We’ll use the training camps to identify players who can adapt quickly to the pace of international matches. In international matches, the pace is so much faster compared to local matches.

“We’ll use the Sanix Cup to test the players at the international level but we’re also looking at playing friendlies against M-League sides to see if the players can cope with the physical aspects.”

Hodak created history by guiding the team to the AFF Under-19 championship title. They also qualified for the AFC Under-19 championship after a 12-year hiatus.

But the 47-year-old Hodak said football coaches are not magicians who can produce instant results.

The previous national Under-19 players had the pedigree as they were from the Harimau Muda programme. The axing of the programme in 2015, however, has left a vacuum in the production line of quality players.

Hodak added that they might not have the talents of rising stars Mohammad Akhyar Rashid, Nik Akif Syahiran Nik Mat and Hadi Fayyadh Abdul Razak at their disposal now but he is still looking at building a formidable team.

“We might have untested players this time but they can surprise you. We might not have players like Akhyar, Nik Akif or Hadi but we will try to get the best out of them,” said Hodak.

We have a list of players we want to test. This squad is made up of a new generation of players and only some have the experience of playing in international matches. Bojan Hodak