Only two players remained from the side that trotted out against Mongolia last week that Tan Cheng Hoe selected to start in Beirut on Tuesday. The reasons behind that have been discussed to death for a few days now and despite the fear, what Tan's boys produced was a performance worthy of winning back the heart of fans.
Matthew Davies and Mahalli Jasuli were the only surviving starting XI as Tan counted on a number of players that weren't even part of the playing squad under Eduardo Vingada's time. Irfan Zakaria, Shahrul Saad, Ariff Farhan, Akram Mahinan, Zaquan Adha and Akhyar Rashid were all given starts and they didn't disappoint.
Mahalli was surprisingly used in the centre of midfield but more due to the paucity of options than the PKNS man nailing down a new position but the 28-year-old had a decent game alongside the oustanding Akram. Irfan and Shahrul formed a formidable partnership in defence while Ariff was tidy with his passing distribution.
"For our first match after just 2-3 days of training session, I think the boys had a fantastic game. Compliment and credit to the players who gave their best although Lebanon are a much better team than us. Though at the end, there's a lesson to be learnt that we have to stay focus for the entirety of the match."
"At the same time, hopefully these players can maintain their consistency because they are still young. It's a new generation of players," said Tan at the post-match press conference.
The intensity was apparent throughout the match as Malaysia never sat off their opponent and employed a collective pressing game that denied the Lebanese players time to dictate play. Hassan Matouk was ultimately instrumental in the creating the winner for Lebanon but was largely kept quiet otherwise.
There was a plan on how to approach the game, which was a right one and it was executed brilliantly by each individual player. Using Zaquan up front as the lead striker meant that Malaysia had very little quality going forward but abundance of work-rate and defending from the front that quickly cascaded onto the midfield and defence.
Akhyar got the start that every Malaysian fan wanted but was taken out mid-way through the second half. Another lively performance from the Kedah man who once again was noted as the best performer by the opposing side but it was his substitute Syafiq Ahmad that scored Malaysia's only goal in the game.
"He [Akhyar] had been playing very well but because of the intensity, he was a bit tired. So we brough fresh player in to replace him as we want to maintain the intensity of the match," explained Tan.
Tan will have another chance to prove that the turnaround isn't only for 90 minutes and that the teams deserved to get the fans back on their side once again when Malaysia take on Bhutan on Sunday. Whether there will be any shake-up to the squad this around, is anyone's guess.
