Another disastrous result at Stadium Perak for the Borneo side. From what we observed, it was a matter of poor tactical execution from the visiting team.
Preparation:
Not much time to get use to the Stadium Ipoh pitch. The team only had one hour to familiarize with the pitch. Warm-up session was done as usual.
How we lined-up:
Shahril Sha’ari (GK) – Ramesh Lai Ban Huat, Riduwan Ma’on, Ronny Harun, Davide Grassi – Júnior Aparecido Guimaro de Souza, Gurusamy Govandar Kandasamy, Mohd Akmal Mohd Noor (Ashri Chuchu 76’), Partiban Janasekaran (Rodney Calvin Akwensivie 51’) – Makeche Ndumba, Gilmar Jose da Silva Filho (Mohamad Syahrul Azwari Ibrahim 68’),.
A compact shaped 4-4-1-1
How the opponent lined-up:
Muhamad Hafizul Hakim Khirul Nizam (GK) – Amirul Azhan Aznan (Azrul Nizam Muhammad 75’), Mohamad Hisyamudin Mohamed Sha’ari, Thiago Junio de Aquino Apelido, Shahrul Mohd Saad – Mohd Nasir Basharuddin (Muhammad Ridzuan Azly Hussham 66’), Ahmad Khairil Anuar Ahmad Zamri, Muhammad Firdaus Saiyadi, Mohamad Fikri Sudin (Muhammad Nurridzuan Abu Hassan 54’) – Erick Weeks Lewis, Vokhid Shodiev
A compact & defensive 4-4-1-1 or can be an attacking 4-2-3-1. Playing high pressing game & hard tackles.
How we performed:
Sarawak didn’t really cope with the aggressive pressing by the opponents. Our midfield was the key focus in this system and Juninho failed to distribute the ball to the lone striker, who was heavily guarded and targeted by the opponent hard tackles.
Pros: Flanks did well to deliver the much needed crosses. Goalkeeper was key in saving 9 attempts on goal.
Cons: The short pass tactic is still not there. Smoothness & accuracy of passes could be triggered by the mutual understanding between players. Knocks picked up by several players throughout this games is another factor to consider.
Match Statistic:
How the players fared. (Player rating)
Starting players:
Shahril S – 7/10 – Made 9 saves to stop Perak from scoring throughout the game. Unlucky to concede the 3 goals.
Davide G – 5/10 – A mixed game. Picked up a knock, and was a victim of referee’s poor decision. Yellow carded for time wasting. Overall, commanding.
Ronny H – 4/10 – A game to forget for the skipper. Lost his marker during the first goal & unlucky to deflect a shot by Khairil resulting in the winning goal.
Ramesh L – 6/10 – A solid display. Did well to make some important clearance and covering the right flank.
Riduwan M – 5/10 – A mixed performance by him. Assisted Partiban’s goal, but conceded quite a number of fouls. Lost his marker in the buildup of those 3 goals.
K Gurusamy – 5/10 – A mixed performance. Kept the midfield in shape for most of the game, but failed to defend the equalizing goal & conceded approximately 6 fouls. Wasted 2 goal-scoring opportunity.
Juninho A – 4/10 – Works hard in the midfield but still very much an average midfielder. We think Shahrol could perform better in his place. A few number of wasted passes, free-kicks & corner-kick. Overrated free kick specialist.
J Partiban – 5/10 – Apart from his home coming goal, his runs were wasteful. Picked up a slight knock giving Rajagobal no choice but to replace him with Rodney.
M Akmal – 5/10 – Helpful in defence, but wasteful in attack. Could do better.
N Makeche – 5/10 – Might have been too early to field him after that pre-season absence due to injury. Still looking not 100% fit. A few challenges he made were clumsy. No understanding between him & Gilmar.
Gilmar F – 5/10 – Lost cause striker. Playing alone upfront, waiting for the midfields & wingers to feed him. Wasted a golden opportunity to score during a one by one situation against goalkeeper Hafizul Hakim. Was heavily guarded by the opponent and was seen complaining about not getting enough protection from the referee on some occasions.
Subs:
Rodney Celvin – 5/10 – Came in to give extra support in defence. Was the culprit of that Perak second goal. He misskick his attempt to clear the ball by doing a scissor kick, but totally misses the ball making it easy for Firdaus to slot the ball past Shahril. Learning process for this young player.
Syahrul Azwari – 6/10 – Came in and becames the new focal point of attack. Promising display but his ideas wasn’t aligned with the other team member.
Ashri C– 6/10 – Came in to give that extra support to Riduwan on the left. A few opportunities to score after a build-up with Syahrul, but his finishing remains major issue.
Tactical conclusion:
Knowing the FA Cup draw and previous records, a win for Sarawak was known to be difficult. The team hasn’t gelled yet, and there is a lot of work to do to improve teamwork.
We were a bit surprised Partiban did not continue play despite performing. We were told that he complained about having a minor discomfort. The introduction of Rodney to replace Partiban (defensive switch) was indeed a huge gamble, which proved to backfire. Another surprise to us was when Rajagobal decided to omit hardworking Shreen from the selection but the decision might have been due to his poor form against Felda United.
Team conclusion by department
Goalkeeper – Shahril was the man of the match for the Sarawak setup. He was just unlucky to concede three goals.
Defence – The back four was tested throughout the game. The youthful Perak side took full advantage of Sarawak’s veteran defences by tiring them with continuous attacks.
Midfield – Sarawak’s biggest problem so far. Juninho is not up to his hype as a International capped player. Gurusamy is the only one doing the dirty work. Not much support in the midfield, and the team lacks ideas.
Flanks – Partiban and Akmal do not seem to have enough depth for the team at this moment. With the current first team players are not up to the mark. This can be considered as another area to improve. Physical & strength are major issue in this area.
Forwards – Gilmar is probably the main target for hard tackling and pressing. Having this kind of striker might be good but over relying is not a good idea. Rushing Makeche back to the squad despite him not being fully fit might have also jeopardized Makeche’s form. Rajagobal needs to find other options to seek goals, and it might be time to go local.
Kelantan will be another tough game to face in the upcoming match-day. We hope the Crocs can avoid relegation come October.
Note: Ratings and comments are our personal view based on what we saw during the Perak vs Sarawak Piala FA match on 20 Feb 2016.
