Patience Needed… Again

Credit: Selangor FC

Here we go again.

Despite a new man in charge and promising recruitment, all the optimism after a great start to the season that began with a 3-1 win over Pahang has all but wiped out after a well-disciplined ocean wave by the name of Penang wiped out Selangor 2-0 in their own home, leaving the Red Giants pondering how to sort out the mess in the aftermath.

Selangor are now about five points adrift of the top three with a win, two draws and two defeats. With only 22 games in a normal Super League season, this is unacceptable for a team with lofty ambitions. However, Selangor is going through a vicious cycle that everyone perhaps should’ve been familiar with.

It looks like Selangor is going through the same pattern as they did in the last two seasons. Perhaps we should’ve seen this coming, but it seems the Selangor fans keep getting disappointed. Maybe you can’t blame them this time around. After all, the difference between those two seasons and now is that the Red Giants have a new man at the helm. But the pattern is there for all to see if you look at how Selangor fared after the first five games of a season ever since the Raja Muda of Selangor, Tengku Amir Shah took over.

You have to go back to 2016 the last time Selangor got double digit points after the first five games, winning 10 points after 3 wins, a draw and a defeat before their season curtailed badly that time. This has now happened three seasons-in-a-row, so this cannot be a coincidence.

Keep in mind though that this is Karsten Neitzel’s first job abroad and it’s a huge leap for him too. So far, the brand of football displayed by Selangor under him has looked good. Selangor has been attacking and attacking in at least four out of the five matches played so far. The problem is the results haven’t been in their favor. They are basically comparable to Brighton Hove & Albion of the Premier League who have been playing great football under Graham Potter, but have found certain results not going into their favor. Their home match Vs. Crystal Palace is a fine example of that.

Back to home soil, if we’re going by this same pattern, it would mean things will only start to pick up for Selangor when the league is about to reach the mid-season stage. A slow start to the season and then they start consistently winning after that. 

The injuries also didn’t help matters. Since 2019, there is always going to be one long-term injury absence that ruins whatever plans Selangor has in mind on the pitch. In 2019, Wan Zack Haikal suffered an ACL injury in pre-season. In 2020, Nor Hakim Hassan missed the whole season due to the same injury and that same injury has now struck Abdul Halim Saari, Selangor’s deep-lying playmaker just minutes into Selangor’s second match of the season at Terengganu. It also didn’t help that two of Selangor’s new signings this season, R. Dinesh and Nik Sharif Hassefy are also out injured. Chalk it up to either a shortened pre-season preparation time, Selangor’s training methods or just rotten luck.

Granted, Penang were also missing key players Ryuji Utomo and Endrick Dos Santos. But that match perhaps showed they do have the reliable depth to fill in those roles and do the job their head coach Thomas Trucha required them to do.

Therefore, there could well be oversights to how Selangor do their transfer business. The left-back slot is a good example of this. With Dinesh out, Neitzel has to rely on Ashmawi Yakin and Ahmad Zikri. The last few matches have proven that Ashmawi is better off as a centre-back and Zikri cannot carry the heavy burden alone as the sole proper LB available currently. The extremely high line deployed by Selangor looking to attack doesn’t help matters either as Ashmawi’s lack of pace is exposed when tracking back the right-winger.

Then the Penang match shows how Selangor may have made a mistake in not extending Sandro’s contract because it appears they don’t have a proper No. 10. Oliver Buff is thought to be that player to replace him. But resident statistics guru Keesh Sundaresan pointed something out about Buff’s true position and the surrounding situation.

Selangor struggled to break through Penang and to some degree Terengganu (when the Turtles were ahead 2-0) without a reliable advanced No. 10 to penetrate the box with incisive passes. Either Neitzel has to change the formation from a 4-2-3-1 to perhaps a 4-3-3 or they have to get a proper No. 10.

One thing for certain is that Selangor needs to really think about what the main team is missing. Especially when it comes to depth in certain areas. They have another chance to rectify this when the mid-season window comes.

Sure, they have players from their feeder team Selangor 2 to call upon. However, remember that these kids are still young. The likes of Zikri, Danial Asri, Mukhairi Ajmal and the rest do have what it takes to make that step up to be a regular first-teamer. But they need every bit of time to develop and hone their abilities. Even young Ghanian defender Jordan Ayimbila, who has been impressive, still has the time to develop to be an even better player. 

Basically to sum everything up, fans will have to be patient yet again. B. Sathianathan was afforded to do so at the start of his tenure in 2019 and got Selangor to finish third after a horrible start to the season. The same patience has to be afforded to Neitzel, the recruitment under him and the players. Understandably though with the quality the Red Giants have, the team should at least have more points than they have now. There’s a 1.5 week break after this and it’s a good time for Neitzel to step back & see what needs to be tweaked.

But for how many impending seasons do Selangor fans need to endure this vicious cycle over and over? If Selangor truly wants to challenge the top, they need to get it right from the very beginning. Now that we’re past the starting stage, all Selangor can do now is hope for this same sequence of events to repeat and start picking up wins from here on out. But next season onwards, they have to get roaring from the very beginning. For now, the fans must trust the process amid frustrations yet again.