Daily Express
Kota Kinabalu: With tales of off-field woe continuing to surround the Sabah Super League squad, coach Justin Ganai must stand up and guide his players to put up a better showing in the match against Perak at the Perak stadium tonight (Tuesday).
The humiliating 1-3 defeat to the same team at the Likas Stadium on Saturday has raised further question on the whole squad.
No doubt the team were weakened by the absence of several first team players including the two Australian imports and a few on the pitch may have also carried some injuries.
But the performance and attitude of some players has shown little indication that they were trying their best to win the game.
It was overall a lacklustre performance by the team in a poorly contested match.
Justin and his coaching staff must work out the right strategy to gain sweet revenge and restore their pride.
The failure to build on their one goal lead and instead preferring to sit back and allowing the Perak players to dictate the match that resulted in the defeat was a very harsh but good lesson.
Perak were not a very good team as shown on Saturday but Sabah were just that worse on the night.
The midfield is the area that the coach has to work extra hard on, as their performance was a shambles and the strikers were hardly getting any supply of balls throughout the match.
The team are currently in 10th position with 15 points and they need to start wining again and Justin has to find ways to motivate his players to play like men possessed.
Otherwise they may have to suffer another hammering defeat if they play like they did in the first match.
Meanwhile, there were also questions on most fans' lips on the continuing absence of Azizon Abd Kadir in the team line-up.
The former number one has been ignored for the last five matches.
It was understood that he was blamed for one of the goals that led to Sabah's 0-2 loss to Sime Darby FC in the first round of the FA Cup match in February.
Since then Syed Adney Syed Hussin who was installed as first choice keeper has conceded 13 goals in five matches.
A former State coach called Express Sports and voiced his concern on the situation and said Azizon should be given the chance the redeem himself.
He said it doesn't make sense why a keeper who had conceded so many goals still has the faith of the coach.
He added that on record, Azizon has done more good than bad things at Sabah and furthermore the former international has shed 7kg to make himself fitter in order to regain his place.
