SHAH ALAM, June 25 — Selangor head coach B. Sathianathan wants at least five warm up matches for his team if the Super League resumes in early September.
However, if the Malaysia League (M-League) 2020 campaign, postponed since March following the Covid-19 pandemic is to resume earlier, the 62-year-old coach needs more than five matches.
However, Sathianathan, who has coached Selangor for two seasons, admitted that his desire to hold a friendly match may face challenges.
“If the league is to resume earlier, I want seven friendly matches but how can I find opponent teams? We have played against Kedah, Perak and Terengganu and they are all very far.
“We cannot travel like we used to and if we are to take the bus, we would need two buses. We need to resolve this,” he told Bernama today.
Selangor are now fifth, five points behind Super League leader Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) after struggling at the start of the season with just one win, two draws and one defeat in the first four games.
However, Sathianathan believes his team can still pose a challenge for the title this season despite the decision of the Malaysian Football League (MFL) to change the format by having 11 games instead of a total of 22 games.
“Every team has a chance. Looking at the ranking position, JDT are at the top, they have a good team. We are separated by five points from JDT and the difference between us and Perak in second place is three points. Anything can happen in seven games,” he said.
On the Selangor squad returning to train after a three-month break, Sathianathan said he had not encountered any problems since training started last Monday despite having to comply to the standard operating procedures (SOPs).
“The first 14 days of my training focuses on running to build stamina. The only thing different now is that players have to run three metres away from each other,” he said. — Bernama
