More options in Lions’ attacking midfield

Unbeaten in his first three matches in charge, interim national football coach Fandi Ahmad believes he now has depth in his squad and most significantly, he has choices in the creative department.

The Lions will play Cambodia at the Phnom Penh Olympic Stadium tonight in a friendly, ahead of next month's Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup.

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And Fandi, who is likely to deploy a 4-2-3-1 system against the Angkor Warriors, is happy that he has five quality players competing for the three places behind lone striker Ikhsan Fandi or Khairul Amri.

"Above all, we have options (in attacking midfield)," Fandi told The Straits Times yesterday.

"There is Adam (Swandi), Gabriel (Quak), Shahril (Ishak), Iqbal (Hussain) and Faris (Ramli). I'm looking forward to giving them some game time."

The wealth of options available has also meant that experienced playmaker Shahdan Sulaiman, with 55 caps to his name, missed out on selection.

While Cambodia, ranked 169th in the world by Fifa, are winless in three games this year (losing 1-2 to Afghanistan and 1-3 to Malaysia while drawing 2-2 against Timor Leste), the Lions' tactician is taking nothing for granted.

He hopes his five attacking midfielders can do the damage against the hosts. Singapore are 166th in the world rankings.

He said: "Cambodia will definitely come at us in the first 30 minutes. They are battlers and we must survive that first half hour. We must improve in our concentration in the first five minutes. Against Mongolia, we played some backpasses that nearly ended in goals.

"Hopefully, when Cambodia run out of steam in the second half, we have the players to counter-attack quickly.

"That second goal against Mongolia (scored by Quak) was a result of one such move. We must be composed and patient."

Cambodia's national team general manager is Japanese player Keisuke Honda, but the Melbourne Victory attacking midfielder will miss the game against Singapore as he is preparing for this Saturday's derby against Melbourne City.

Leading the Angkor Warriors tonight will be Argentine coach Felix Gonzalez.

The Lions have an encouraging start under Fandi, drawing once (1-1 against Mauritius) and defeating Fiji and Mongolia (both 2-0).

It is also the first time since 2015, when former coach Bernd Stange led the side to back-to-back wins over Afghanistan (1-0) and Cambodia (2-1) in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, that the team notched two consecutive victories.

Fandi has brought 24 players from his squad of 29 to Phnom Penh. Skipper Hariss Harun will miss tonight's game owing to club commitments with Malaysia Super League champions Johor Darul Takzim.

Attacking midfielder Zulfadhmi Suzliman is ruled out for tonight's game with an ankle problem, Faritz Hameed is rested as Fandi wants to try out other right-backs like Madhu Mohana and Nazrul Nazari; left-back Shakir Hamzah has stayed in Singapore for family reasons and right-back Fadli Kamis is not selected.

TRAINING TOUR

The Lions will then go on a training tour of Osaka, Japan, from Oct 21-Nov 2, after which the final squad of 23 for the AFF Cup will be announced.

Fandi revealed that Zulfahmi Arifin and Ho Wai Loon are expected to start against Cambodia, in place of regulars Hariss and Shakir respectively.

Singapore are in Group B at the AFF Cup, alongside defending champions Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Timor-Leste.

As the struggling Lions continue to show signs of recovery under the interim coach, who will be in charge until the end of the AFF Cup campaign, Fandi wants the players to continue maxing out their lung power to match opponents stride for stride.

He said: "I want the boys to show the same commitment as they had shown in the previous three games.

"Once possession is lost, I see our players double or even triple-teaming on the opponent.

"It is very positive that we are winning our battles."