The game against Kelantan highlighted several weaknesses in the Sinkies squad.
Lack of mental strength
Sinkies were doing pretty well in the first half until a lapse in concentration led to Kelantan equalising. To concede such a sloppy goal before half-time suggests complacency. Professionals should be able to maintain full concentration until the half-time/full-time whistle is blown.
Sinkies were playing at home and should have come out fighting. They were simply outplayed by their opponents and showed no fighting spirit. It was as if they had acknowledged the superiority of Kelantan and decided that a draw would be a great result. The equaliser obviously punctuated their self-confidence.
Tactically uninspiring
Sundram was a decent player in his time but as a coach, nobody would ever mistake him for Mourinho. Knowing the aerial weakness of Kelantan, he was wise to get his team to work on set pieces. Unfortunately, that was the only thing he did right.
- The lines between defence, midfield, and attack were disjointed and large swaths of space were left for Kelantan to exploit. The team should have been more compact. Kelantan were cutting through our centre midfield like a knife through butter. The defence practically defended on the edge of their penalty box, the midfield were in disarray and did not provide protection for the back four, and this invited Kelantan to attack. In addition, when a Sinkie got the ball, there was no outlet to launch a counter attack. People were not making themselves available for the ball.
- I don't know what Sundram said to his charges during half-time but perhaps he should shut his gob the next time. Sinkies matched Kelantan in the first half and as the home side, they should go for the kill after the break. Kelantan were exhausted from playing a game a few days back and we should have put them under the cosh - tired players make more mistakes. Sadly, the opposite happened and the result was negative football that made fucking boring Everton look like Real Madrid. David Moyes at least has an excuse for being clueless in attack; he was a centreback during his playing days. Sundram, who was an attacker, has no such excuses for being tactically clueless in the attacking department. And like Moyes, Sundram should grow a pair.
Physical problem
Looking at the Sinkies last night, one might have thought they were a Sunday league team. Apart from the goalkeeper, every mother's son wearing white looked like he had just gone for a whoring session in GL. These are professional players. If they could not even last beyond 45 minutes on the field, they should not be getting paid to play football. Maybe they should consider a career change. Delivery riders, security guards, hawkers, retail assistants, and the such do not require a high level of fitness. Seriously, I have seen Sunday league sides with much better levels of fitness.
Of course, not all credit should be given to the Sinkies for playing like fuck.
The crowd had a part to play and they were fucking quiet. This is a fucking football game. Why bother to queue for hours to get a ticket and then keep their fucking mouths shut for most of the game? Nobody expected the crowd to greet lousy football with loud cheers, but at least some boos and vulgar chanting would have lifted the deathly atmosphere a bit. If anything, it might have irritated the Sinkie team enough for them to stop playing like pussies and get their fucking act together,
The game could have been played at the National Stadium, but no, we ended up at 5,000 seater Jalan "fucking tiny" Besar Stadium. One might have forgiven the Sinkies if they thought they were still playing a S-League game and could go through the motions. Sinkieland is a developed country but we have no proper stadium to stage home matches. A big FUCK YOU to the jiak liao bee bastards in charge of managing our football.
