Bangladesh head coach Thomas Dooley has admitted his side are still searching for a solution at centre-forward, while a lack of proper preparation has also made the build-up to the ASEAN Cup difficult.
Speaking at Kings Arena, Dooley said most of his locally based players had barely trained as a group for almost two months after the San Marino match.
“Most of the players didn’t do anything after the San Marino game,” Dooley said. “I’m not saying they did absolutely nothing, but for almost two months they trained individually.”
Players based abroad were in a different situation, according to Dooley, as they continued working with their clubs through pre-season and competitive matches.
The Bangladesh coach said the lack of preparation meant the team had to take on a heavy workload after the start of the national camp on 27 August.
“We started our training sessions almost four weeks before the match,” he said. “That gave us some time to get them fit. It meant we had to take on a big workload from the beginning, which meant training twice a day.”
The intense schedule has brought some muscle problems. Jamal Bhuiyan and Foysal Ahmed Fahim have suffered minor strains, while Bishwanath Ghosh is expected to be out for around four weeks.
Bishwanath’s absence is also significant because Dooley had been considering him in an attacking role following his performance against San Marino.
The coach now has to find another option for the number nine position, with Rakib Hossain, Mujibur Rahman and Shahriar Emon among the players he is considering.
“We have to find someone,” Dooley said. “We have to put someone in that position who can help us the most as a central forward. Who could that be? We are not sure yet.”
Dooley also questioned why Bangladesh’s domestic game continues to struggle to produce local strikers.
“We don’t have a traditional number nine in our team,” he said. “We have to ask why our league is not producing number nine players. Every club uses a foreign player in the number nine position. As a result, we are not producing local number nines.”
