Review on Pool of national Team players...

Defender Left:

Azmi Muslim*
Asrarudin Putra Omar
Sabree Mat Abu

Azmi Muslim’s rose to prominence can make a good Hollywood rag to riches story.  The former forklift driver‘s talent was found by TV3 reality show, My Team, and grow strength by strength into one of the best attacking left back in the country. Like any good left back, he has springs on his steps and can terrorize the opponent with his speed on the hit-and-run. His left foot cross was crucial in our country’s run to the 2009 SEA games Gold medal. Despite his attacking prowess, he still cannot find the right balance with his defensive side. Due to that, Azmi yet to taste pure first team squad status in the NT as RG usually start with the more defensive Sabree Abu and only introduce Azmi as an impact sub later on. But the talent is there, and after a season with Kedah, his game has started to become more mature but a hamstring injury in Malaysia Cup semifinals prevents him from showing it at the AFF Suzuki Cup.

Much hope were put Asrarudin Putra Omar when he caught the eye of PSV Eindhoven, they offer him a week trial, after a good performance at 2007 Champions Youth Cup. Safe to say, the potential then are yet to be materialized. It annoys a lot of fans when RG use him constantly as the starting left back as he is not even the starting left back for Selangor.  But we all knew RG’s predicament, as after Azmi Muslim’s injury, Asrarudin is the only player with a natural left leg in the team. A right legged left back plus a right legged left winger will equal zero penetration and predictable deliveries from the left.  To be fair, Asrar is not all bad. He is quick, works hard and can be decent going forward. You can see he tried very hard to curb his attacking instinct to focus more on his defensive side during the AFF Cup. But, we can also see that he was not good enough at that.  He tried to be patient with his tackles but still caught flat most of the time by the opponent’s winger on 1-on-1. He also prone to individual mistakes too as he was responsible for 3 of the 5 goals Indonesia scored during the opening match mauling. It speaks a lot about the dearth of left footed talent in the team when he still starts the next match.. and his late tackle against Thailand in the box can alter the history differently for us if a penalty was called.. In my opinion, he has the right physique and skill, just need to train diligently on some defensive technique and habits.

Sabree Abu is our own in-house utility man in the team. He can plays anywhere on the back four and primarily used as a defensive midfielder by Kedah. Previously, he was Rajagopal’s favorite left back as he is much more dependable defensively compare to the more attacking Azmi Muslim and Asrarudin Omar. He is sure footed with his tackle and very good at closing down opponents. But his problem at left back is he has no use whatsoever going forward. No cross and no penetration. If he received the ball on the left, chances are, that the ball either be cleared or passed back to GK to be cleared. But still, he is the safest bet to choke the opponent on that left hand side.

Others:

Titus James Palani ??
??
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MY VERDICT

This is easily our weakest and problematic position in the team. The balance is not right as the players are either too attacking or too defensive. The only left legged players in the team are a liability defensively and this has jeopardized RG’s plan for midfield as well, as Kunalan’s attacking range have to be shackled because he is the only winger who can track back a lot to cover the left backs even though he is much more comfortable, attacking wise, on the right. Sabree Abu can only be considered as a stop gap measure there as there is only so much he can do with his right foot at left back. New talents coming out from the league to challenge this position are also not clearly visible. So, unless there are surprise gems in the Harimau Muda squad, Rajagopal has no choice but to continue developing Azmi Muslim and Asrarudin Putra Omar in that position with the former hold a better edge to improve as he is the starting eleven for his state side, Kedah.