Bangladesh head coach Thomas Dooley accepted that Malaysia are currently a level above his side after their 3-0 defeat in the FIFA ASEAN Cup, with the American pointing to differences in accuracy, technique and tactical quality.
“Obviously it’s not the dream that we had today, but also a more realistic game in that we could see that the difference between us and between them is accuracy, technical and tactical,” Dooley said after the match.
He admitted Bangladesh made a poor start and struggled to keep possession cleanly.
“We did not have a good start actually this morning and that followed up into the game. The game was a little bit too slow for us in the beginning,” he said.
“We made a lot of mistakes in passing and accuracy, so we gave them a little bit of space. They could play in front of our goal.”
Dooley had warned his players about Malaysia’s attacking quality before the match and felt the difference was clear on the pitch.
“They have three offensive players, they were incredible. The speed, they were quick, they had unbelievable technique, they were very dangerous,” he said.
Despite conceding three goals, Dooley defended Bangladesh’s defensive effort. “I think the defence did a good job,” he said. “But against players like those, if you leave them alone for a second, then they can do a big damage to the team.”
He also said fatigue contributed to Bangladesh’s problems late in the game. “We tried to play it out of the back a little bit and in the end you could see that the players were tired. They were cramping up and making more mistakes.”
Dooley said he was pleased with Farhaan Ali and Shuki Itofusa, while explaining why Farhaan struggled to influence the match.
“This game obviously was not so for Farhaan, because he’s more a player who needs to go into the box,” he said. “In this game today, he had more defensive work and obviously that’s not his game.”
The coach also stressed Hamza Choudhury’s importance, saying, “We need Hamza in the back, we need him in the midfield, offence, defence. We could need Hamza up front.”
Dooley refused to blame goalkeeper Mehedi Hasan Srabon for the defeat and said he would review the match before judging individual performances.
“It’s definitely not the goalkeeper’s fault that we got three goals today,” he said.
For Dooley, the defeat showed Bangladesh where they need to improve.
“We need to learn, we need to analyse the video, watch every single play, and then again learn from it,” he said.
