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League Cup: Home bank on youngsters to shine
Sham Majid
info@sleague.com
Thursday evening’s League Cup faceoff between Home United and Gombak United at Clementi Stadium would see the former adopt a two-pronged approach with respect to their clash against the Bulls.
On top of trying to overcome the visitors and progress to the semifinals, the Protectors would have the opportunity to blood in several youngsters and fringe players, due to a raft of national players missing owing to Singapore’s Asian Cup qualification clash against Jordan in Amman.
Lionel Lewis, Juma’at Jantan, Shahril Alias, Shi Jiayi, Tengku Mushadad, Isa Halim, Rosman Sulaiman and Shahril Ishak have all been included in the 22-man party that will represent the country, a point that Home assistant coach S. Subramani acknowledged will leave the club weakened.
“Eight of our national players are missing due to international commitments, and this means it’s a really big distraction for us,” explained the 37-year-old.
“At the same time, this is a good chance to take a look at our youngsters and reserve players, but to be honest, we really don’t have much of a choice but to play them.”
Whilst admitting that the circumstances leading up to their Bulls challenge are far from ideal, the former national stopper admitted that his charges must grit their teeth and soldier on.
“This is going to be a really difficult game for us due to our situation, but having said that, the boys are raring to go and prove to the new coach that they are worthy of a place in the first team,” he commented.
“Obviously, we are expecting tough competition from Gombak. Their team has been together for some time and they have experienced foreign players to beef up the team, so it’s very tough for us.”
The former Home skipper maintained that his charges are still adapting to the new methods and ideas implemented by new Korean honcho Lee Lim Saeng.
“We have a new coach this year, and the players are still adjusting to his new style of play and to the tactics he has been trying to bring in,” he noted.
“The players have responded well in the past two games, but we are looking at better performances from them.”
His counterpart, Gombak gaffer Darren Stewart, lauded the decision of the footballing fraternity to stage the League Cup at the advent of the new season.
“Actually I think the League Cup is good preparation for the league, and it’s probably scheduled at a time when the national team has to go away to play in an important qualifier,” he said.
“This allows Raddy Avramovic to bring his national players away, and I think players love playing the game no matter what competition it is. I don’t know any player who would rather train than play.”
Despite the Protectors being deprived of a glut of players for this tie, the affable Australian is not going to rest on his laurels after proceedings last campaign.
“I don’t want to sound too negative, but last year we had the same situation where PN Sivaji put out a side we never heard before,” Stewart remarked.
“What happened was they played us off the park and we lost.
“Half of the Prime League players in Home can perhaps make it to the teams of other S.League squads.”
The Bulls boss is adopting a positive stance despite his side’s less-than-auspicious start to the season, which has culminated in a sole victory and two losses.
“I thought we were okay during our first two games against Tampines (Rovers) and Balestier (Khalsa) but we would have liked to earn more points,” he noted.
“There is nothing much to talk about the Sengkang (Punggol) game as we played with ten men for a long period, but it’s still early days and we would improve.”
Besides the eight players missing out for Home, Gombak would also be shorn of winger Fazrul Nawaz due to the Lions’ clash against Jordan.
Wingback Jeremy Chiang could feature, however, after making good progress in his recovery from an injury sustained against Tampines. |
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