January 29, 2004
How the table has turned.
In 1998 when Singapore won the regional international Tiger Cup, it was the defence trio of Aide Iskandar, S. Subramani & R Sasikumar who won the bragging right. In 2004 as Singapore seek to rebuild itself, it is the defence causing all the problems.
R Sasikumar has retired but both Aide Iskandar & S. Subramani has started to show they could well be past their play-by dates for the national team. Aide Iskandar & S. Subramani were too slow in turning & with an inexperienced Baihakki Khaizan holding the fort alone, it was no wonder Singapore was always in deep waters.
Singapore coach Raddy Avramovic has asked the defence to look at themselves & asked how the 5 goals were conceded especially the last 3 goals which came in a 10 minutes spell.
He has demanded the defenders concentrated & talk among each other more often thereby reducing such errors.
The attack problem has been partly solved with the dropping of Egmar Goncalves and Mirko Grabovac but now there is the defensive problem to solve.
After all no matter how good your attack is if the defence continued conceding sloppy goals, all efforts will be meaningless.