KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 — National Under-23 (U-23) football squad chief coach Brad Maloney says he will continue to guide the team for the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifiers “for as long as his services are needed”.
He said this during a press conference following the poor performance of the squad which was ousted from the 2022 U-23 Asian Cup Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan after losing Group C matches against South Korea and Thailand.
“Yes, I think so. It has crossed my mind, you know something that obviously we might have to discuss with management once we get back,” he said when asked if he would continue as the chief coach of the team and make preparations for subsequent championships.
For the record, the Australian coach’s contract runs until December 2023.
The national U-23 lost 1-4 to defending champions South Korea on Thursday before being thrashed 0-3 by Thailand last night.
In the meantime, Maloney said he would reshuffle the starting line-up for the final Group C match against Vietnam on Wednesday to at least bring back a point.
“We will reassess the group and will definitely look at rotating the players for the next match,” he said.
Asked about the loss to Thailand, Maloney said his players had performed satisfactorily in the first 20 minutes before failing to prevent Thailand’s first goal in the 23rd minute.
“I think a few of our players were also tired from the first match and as I had said, we were chasing the game and we needed to make some changes to try and get something out of it,” he said, adding that the War Elephants deserved the three points based on their performance in the game.
Meanwhile, Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin said he would wait for a full report from Maloney on the team’s failure to get past the group stage of the 2022 U-23 Asian Cup before deciding on the Australian’s future.
“It’s not only the fans who are disappointed, I am the most disappointed. But let me comment further after getting a report from Maloney.
“We will take appropriate action for the sake of national football,” he said through an audio message sent by FAM to the media.
He said it would not be fair for him to make any comments on the performance of the Harimau Muda squad at this time, as they still had one more Group C match left against Vietnam. — Bernama
