Focus on building compatibility between players - Tengku Abdullah

Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) deputy president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said the coach should field the best players for an important match to boost understanding among players, in order to secure a win.

"Actually, now is no longer a suitable time for the coach to continue with experimentation. When are we going to achieve compatibility among players if we continue to experiment?

"So, I hope Rajagobal can pick the best players for the match against Barcelona on Aug 10," he said when met by reporters after a function, here, yesterday.

Tengku Abdullah said the performance of the national team in friendlies lately was very disappointing and something must be done to overcome the problem.

"I'm also not sure why the players' play didn't jell lately. I feel Rajagobal must determine his first eleven now and start to build understanding and compatibility between the players he picked.

"He has his strategy but if we look at the match against Chelsea... definitely Rajagobal was still trying out players. When performing in a high- level game, we need to have the main players and experimentation must be done earlier," he said.

The performance of the Harimau Malaya squad continued to raise concern after they exhibited a disappointing performance in the friendly match against Chelsea FC on Monday.

And in the friendly matches in Japan, the squad under Rajagobal lost 0-2 in the first match against first division club Shimizu Pulse on Thursday and lost 0-5 against another Japanese division one club Shonan Bellmare yesterday.