U.23 Malaysia temporarily revived hope of reaching the semi-finals of the Southeast Asian tournament, but…

Despite a 7-1 win over U.23 Brunei, U.23 Malaysia's playing style still cannot operate smoothly. This team still reveals many weaknesses in both attack and defense.

The goal reflects the weakness of U.23 Malaysia

Also in the 7-1 victory of U.23 Malaysia over U.23 Brunei, coach Nafuzi Zain's team conceded 1 goal. They became the first team to let young Brunei players score at the 2025 U.23 Southeast Asian Championship.

U.23 Malaysia still shows weaknesses despite big win over U.23 Brunei

Photo: Dong Nguyen Khang

In the phase where the goal was conceded, the U.23 Malaysia defense was quite weak. Their defenders marked the ball superficially, creating conditions for Haziq Syamra to win the ball. This player dribbled a few more times, before shooting the ball into the U.23 Malaysia net, scoring for U.23 Brunei. This goal reflected the poor covering ability of the U.23 Malaysia defenders, they were not able to close in when the opponent had the ball in front of their own penalty area.

This happened in the match between U.23 Malaysia and U23 Philippines a few days ago. Both goals that U.23 Malaysia conceded against the Philippines happened in a similar way, the defenders of U.23 Malaysia did not mark well, creating space for the opponent to shoot.

If U.23 Malaysia cannot fix the defensive errors that occurred in the matches against Brunei and the Philippines, coach Nafuzi Zain's team will face even more difficulties against U.23 Indonesia on July 21.

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Naturalized striker fades

Although the U.23 Malaysia players scored 7 goals against U.23 Brunei, the scoring efficiency of the Malaysian strikers was not good. The number of opportunities that U.23 Malaysia missed was even double the number of goals they scored.

The strikers of U.23 Malaysia are not sharp yet.

Photo: Dong Nguyen Khang

This reflects that the strikers of U.23 Malaysia are not very sharp. In particular, the naturalized striker of Scottish origin Fergus Tierney is a big disappointment. This player scored 1 goal against U.23 Brunei, but he continuously had very regrettable missed shots.

Fergus Tierney is tall (1.86 m), but clumsy. This player rarely dribbles past opposing defenders, due to poor personal technique. This is the detail that makes the U.23 Malaysia attack lack sharpness, because they had high expectations for Fergus Tierney before the 2025 U.23 Southeast Asian tournament took place. The U.23 Malaysia midfield still prioritizes passing the ball to Fergus Tierney, but the more the ball is given to the Scottish striker, the more likely the U.23 Malaysia attacks fall into a deadlock.

U.23 Malaysia needs to improve a lot before they face U.23 Indonesia. Coach Nafuzi Zain's team must win against the young team from the archipelago country to keep their hopes of reaching the semi-finals alive. However, with what U.23 Malaysia has shown in the last 2 matches against the Philippines and Brunei, U.23 Malaysia is temporarily rated lower than U.23 Indonesia.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/u23-malaysia-tam-song-lai-hy-vong-vao-ban-ket-giai-dong-nam-a-nhung-185250718233524412.htm