Following the 3-2 away defeat to Kedah Darulaman last Wednesday in Alor Setar, Kuala Lumpur City’s head coach Bojan Hodak, identified that our defence is still not at the degree that the club is used to.
Reflecting on the game in an audio recording to The Voice of The City Boys, our Malaysia Cup winning tactician, said “Defensively we were definitely not up to the level. When you concede 3 goals, it means that your defence was not good enough”.
Continuing further, the Croatian pointed out “Again the problem is individual mistakes. We conceded goals basically in a situation where when we had more defenders than when they have opponents in our penalty box. This is something that has happened for the second game in a row. So we need to improve this”.
Bojan also reminded the key strength of the City Boys last season lay in our defence, and we need to regain that for this campaign. Explaining further, “Last year, most of the time, our defence was quite tight, this time we are missing Daniel Ting, who’s not here, and for this game we missed GG (Giancarlo Gallifuoco), but still the other players who are playing, know that they need to do their job”.
In 2021, we only conceded 20 goals throughout the league season, averaging less than a goal per game. We were jointly with Terengganu, the second toughest team to score against. However, the alarm bells are ringing much louder in the ears of Bojan, seeing that we have let in 6 goals in the opening 2 matches, not including the other 3 conceded vs Johor Darul Ta’zim in the Charity Cup game.
The much traveled coach, added that this will be his focus when Super League calendar takes a 3 week interval next week “During the break, we will need to work on it (our defence)”.
Despite his unhappiness with the situation of our rear end, Bojan was pleased with the efforts upfront, “Attacking wise, we scored 2 goals. We did okay. We created lots of chances”.
The squad from the capital next host Langkawi in the first round of the FA Cup this Sunday, 13/3/2022, before the resumption of the league in April, with a home game against Johor DT.
To read the match report of Kedah DA vs Kuala Lumpur City on 9/3/2022 (Super League), please click https://kualalumpurfootball.
To watch the highlights of Kedah DA Vs KL City on 9/3/2022 (Super League), please click youtube.com/watch
To watch the complete match of Kedah DA Vs KL City on 9/3/2022 (Super League), please click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYQxNDP9NTs