KUCHING: Kuching City head coach Irfan Bakti Abu Salim will make some changes to his first eleven when they take on Perak FC at Perak Stadium, Ipoh on Sunday night in the Malaysia Super League.
The changes Irfan mentioned may be necessary as Kuching City have suffered two consecutive losses at home albeit the previous game against Sabah FC saw a slight improvement in terms of performance where the players showed more fighting spirit compare to the heavy defeat to Selangor FC on March 2.
Kuching City players seem to not understand the plan or not applying the tactics set up by Irfan in the game against Selangor FC as they were easily dissected by the opposition where the players left a huge space in between the lines of defenders and midfielders.
Kuching City players were seemingly unsure between deploying man marking or zonal marking at times in the defensive phase where Selangor FC players just tore them apart which prompted the line-up changes done by Irfan in the game against Sabah FC.
“Despite the improved performance against Sabah FC, there will be some changes made to the starting line-up tomorrow night in several positions.
“I hope that the changes will be a turning point and enough for us to grab the victory and the three points,” Irfan told New Sarawak Tribune.
Irfan added that the two previous defeats did not weaken the spirit of his players but instead the players are raring to go and looking forward to bounce back in the next game.
“We are not pushing the panic button just yet and I believe that tomorrow night we can overturn the slight dip in form in the past two games.
“I know the home team (Perak FC) did not have the best start of the season (2 draws and 1 defeat in Malaysia Super League and a loss in Malaysia FA Cup) but we should not take them lightly.
“I am sure they would like to turn their fortunes around and they will come out with fighting spirit so I told my players to stay focused in the match until the final whistle,” Irfan said.
Kuching City are currently eighth on the table after three matches, with the only 3 points raked up from the win against Kelantan FC in the opening game.
As for Perak FC, they are currently 11th on the table after three matches, with only 2 points raked up from the last two games where they drew 0-0 in two consecutive matches against PDRM and Kelantan United respectively.
