KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — National head coach Tan Cheng Ho still has high hopes for most of the existing and familiar talents in the national team to take up the challenges in the second round of the World Cup 2022/Asia Cup 2023 qualifiers in June, rather than having new faces.

In fact, his refusal to conduct any experiment with the new faces was obvious when he retained over 70 per cent of the existing lineup of his charges at the national team’s centralised training camp, which will begin next Monday in Johor Bahru.

With the many challenges, including time constraints and uncertain friendly matches, he said it was difficult to give the new faces the opportunity to play as the main focus now was to improve the performance and combination among the players in the existing squad.

"The coaching lineup will always monitor every player in the Super League and Premier League matches, but we really can’t take the risk and give the new faces the chance to play during this critical time.

"I need the main lineup of (national team) players to undergo training because there is so much to be done to improve the team, but the doors are always open for any new player with outstanding performance,” he told Bernama today.

Ahead of the centralised training camp, Cheng Hoe listed 17 national players who played in the last two qualifying matches in November 2019 and 11 others including the country’s latest naturalised player Guilherme de Paula to complete his 28-player list.

The list received a mixed reaction from the media and supporters who questioned the decision of the 52-year-old coach in choosing certain players who did not even have minutes of action in the Malaysian League this season.

However, the former Kedah coach stressed that he still has high hopes for the existing players who had been with him from the start of the campaign.

"Every time a list of players called to attend centralised training is made, there will be dissatisfaction, but what’s important to me is that they (players) are still relevant for the national squad because most of them have been with me all this while and have contributed to the team.

"So, I hope they can still contribute to the national squad and even without minutes of action, they have special talents and I’m sure that they are capable of contributing to the national squad,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cheng Ho also refuted the allegation that his decision to hold the centralised training camp in Johor instead of at the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) Complex in Kelana Jaya was because he was trying to avoid the media.

After being postponed for over a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Malaysian squad is scheduled to play in the second round of the World Cup 2022/Asia Cup 2023 qualifiers against United Arab Emirates (UAE) on June 3, followed by Vietnam (June 11) and Thailand (June 15). All matches are to be played in the UAE.

Malaysia is on the right track to advance to the Asia Cup 2023 final after securing the second spot in Group G with nine points after five matches. — Bernama