Behind The Opponents’ Lines: Thailand

If there are two things you would expect when these two teams face each other, expect this: A hard-fought battle and memorable moments. Who could forget that dramatic 2018 Suzuki Cup semi-final when Adisak Kraisorn skied his last-minute penalty that led to the Harimau Malaya into the final? As for Thailand, they scored two goals in the final ten minutes in the 2014 2nd leg to deny us the title in the most heartbreaking fashion from Malaysia’s point of view.

Thailand and Malaysia will renew their rivalry once again when they face each other to close their qualifiers. Thailand is only one point behind the Harimau Malaya and anything can change between the 3rd and the 15th of June before these two teams meet. So by the time these two teams meet on June 15th, we would know for sure how high the stakes will be and given how tough the group is, it’s likely that it will be high.

So how has Thailand prepared heading into the qualifiers? We asked Ta Lao, who is one of the co-founders of Thai League Central, the English platform for all things in Thai football, to give us some insight into how Thailand has been getting ready.

Preparations

Thailand’s original plans had them start training in early May. But their plans got scuppered no thanks to the cursed virus plaguing the world.

“The team was supposed to train in Thailand since the beginning of May but because two players getting Covid, they stopped training. They have now been at UAE for around a week (As of last Thursday) and played one friendly match vs Oman,” said Ta Lao.

Ultimately, there were almost no more snags (Almost being the keyword here. More on this later) to Thailand’s preparations since landing in Dubai. As for the friendly match, Thailand went down 0-1 to Oman. But head coach Akira Nishino remains cautious after the loss.

“Nishino didn’t say anything to the press except how he is still testing the team,” according to Ta Lao.
The War Elephants also played an additional two friendlies in the space of two days with the second one being unofficial as Nishino continued to experiment. Firstly, they played to a 2-2 draw against Tajikistan despite being ahead 2-0 at one point, only for a red card to turn things around for Tajikistan by scoring a last-minute equalizer. The next day, they lost 1-4 to Uzbekistan. 

The results are definitely discouraging. But whether the testing period did give Nishino ideas on his ideal line-up and tactics is a different story. But he did tell the Bangkok Post that in their match Vs. Indonesia, the team has to lift their game “to a higher level,”.

Players

Ta Lao has identified a few players to watch in this Thailand squad: Sasalak Haiprakhon, Nattawut Suksum and Thanawat Suengchittawon.

Sasalak plays as a full-back and recently sealed a big six-month loan to defending South Korean champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, effectively became the second signing under the K League’s new ASEAN quota across the top two divisions and set to be the first-ever Thai player to play in the K League. (A/N: Indonesia’s Asnawi Mangkualam is touted to be the first ASEAN quota signing in the K League ever since the quota was introduced when he signed for 2nd-division side, Ansan Greeners earlier this year)

Nattawut Suksum looks like he is setting up to be Thailand’s leading man upfront. Scoring 11 goals for True Bangkok United last season, Nattawut cannot be slept upon with his nonsense approach to find space in order to score. His poaching instincts will see him looking to make the perfect run off the last defender. He has a tendency to keep his shots low to make it difficult for the goalkeeper to reach as explained by Thai League Central, who detailed the striker’s goals distribution in a tweet. Thai League Central has also written a piece about Nattawut which you can read more about him here.

For Thanawat’s case, this is his first call-up for the senior squad. The 21-year old midfielder is making decent waves for Leicester City, especially for the U23 side. His most notable performance with them was scoring a brace in their 4-2 win over Manchester United U23 in the Premier League 2. Thanawat’s rise continued when he was named an unused sub in Leicester’s 0-2 defeat to Manchester City on 3rd April of this year. To give an indication of Thanawat’s abilities, Nishino even goes as far as saying Thanawat plays “like Iniesta and Xavi”.

Now if you’re wondering why are the more familiar names such as Teerasil and Theerathon are not mentioned. Well...

Challenges & Expectations

Thailand is missing a big number of key players. A number that is a little too high for any Thai’s liking. Teerasil, Theerathon, Phillip Roller, Chanathip ‘Jay’ Songkrasin and Kawin Thamsatchanan are all missing from the Thailand squad. 

Kawin was strangely not called up by Nishino while full-back Roller, who is the top local scorer of the Thai League last season with 14 goals and veteran striker Teerasil Dangda misses out due to injury. As for Jay, he aggravated a knee injury during training with the War Elephants and has to rest for two weeks after news broke out a few days ago. While there is still a chance Jay can make the Malaysia match if the recovery process is going well in that two weeks, questions would still remain if he can shake it off in time.

Theerathon would’ve joined up. But he withdrew because he would have to undergo a 14-day quarantine in Japan if he returns from Dubai and in the process, he would miss out on a few matches for Yokohama F Marinos, his club. Ta Lao described the absences of Teerasil and Theerathon as a “big miss” for the squad.

Ta Lao has given an indication who will likely take Teerasil, Theerathon and Roller’s place in the squad. He expects Sasalak to take Theerathon’s place at left-back while Narubadin Weerawatnodom stands in for Roller at right-back.

As for who will be leading the line in place of Teerasil, Ta Lao said it would either be Nattawut, Adisak Kraisorn or Suphanat Mueanta. We’ve touched on Nattawut earlier while we in Malaysia are very familiar with Adisak. 18-year old Suphanat though could well be the wild card option. He made a strong case to start upfront when he scored both of Thailand’s goals in the 2-2 draw against Tajikistan and becoming the youngest player to score a brace for the national senior side in the process.

Overall, Thailand does have viable options as Ta Lao stated there are “no more worries” about the squad. Though, he also commented that “we'll have to wait and see” whether the back-ups to the missing key players can step up.

As for where could Thailand finish, Ta Lao expects Thailand not to make the top two and see them finish third, settling for the second chance route in the 3rd round of Asia Cup qualifying in the process. He also said Vietnam will finish top and UAE in second place.

Conclusion

With key senior players missing for Thailand, this could well be the chance for the backup charges to come of age and make their starting positions theirs. And this could be a good thing for Thailand if they perform well as they can be mid-to-long-term options for those positions in the process.

Therefore, even though it seems some of the difficulty is shaved off in this match from Malaysia’s point of view given some of Thailand’s star players are missing, we cannot underestimate the War Elephants as they still have talent that can cause damage. Whether there is a lot at stake or not by the time we reach the 15th, we want to see the Harimau Malaya fight until the end for those precious three points, especially when it would give a nice boost up the FIFA rankings.

Thank you to Ta Lao for taking the time and answering questions about Thailand’s preparations for the World Cup/Asia Cup qualifiers. If you want to know more about Thai football you can follow Ta Lao (@Ta_Lao19) and Thai League Central (@TL_Central) on Twitter.

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