KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — Malaysia’s failure to achieve the mission to qualify for the final of the 2020 Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup in Singapore after bowing out of the group stage could be attributed to its weaker line-up, says former national head coach B Sathianathan.

According to him, there is a stark difference between the squad this time and the squad that played in the 2022 World Cup/2023 Asian Cup qualifiers previously, with the absence of some key players seen as the biggest contributor to the failure in Singapore.

"This is not the strongest line-up. If we look at the time before Covid-19, we played in the World Cup qualifiers with a lot of new faces. But when we change these new faces who played quite well previously, there is indeed a significant weakness in the squad.

"With the absence of Matthew Davies, Corbin Ong (La’Vere Corbin-Ong), Azam (Muhamad Nor Azam Abdul Azih), Sumareh (Mohamadou Sumareh) and without a genuine defensive midfielder, we can see the difference,” he told Bernama, today.

Malaysia, the runners-up of the 2018 AFF Cup failed to advance to the semifinals this time after finishing third in Group B behind Indonesia, who emerged group champions, and Vietnam in second place.

The national squad, which also went through a short and challenging preparation period, started the campaign well by beating Cambodia 3-1 and Laos 4-0, but then lost 0-3 to defending champions Vietnam and 1-4 to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Sathianathan said he viewed the calls for Cheng Hoe to step down as head coach of the national squad only as a stop-gap solution.

The Football Coaches Association of Malaysia (PJBM) president said instead of finding fault, the focus should be on efforts to identify the cause of the disappointing results.

"To point fingers at Cheng Hoe is easy, but as a coach, he has to bear this burden. It’s something a coach has to go through,” he said. — Bernama