STRIKERS are always the ones that get fans on their feet, and any team that possess a brilliant forward will have an advantage over the rivals .
Mokhtar Dahari, Zainal Abidin Hassan, Azman Adnan, Hairuddin Omar and Safee Sali are some of the strikers from the past who have illuminated Malaysian football.
Now, in teenager Luqman Hakim Shamsudin, Malaysia could be looking at the next great striker that can spearhead the national team for years to come.
However, national senior team coach Tan Cheng Hoe feels that a fast-tracked promotion to the senior squad is still too big a leap for the national Under-18 player.
The precocious Luqman has proved that he has what it takes to knock on the door of the senior national team following his outstanding performance in the recent Asean Foorball Federation (AFF) Under-18 Championship in Vietnam.
Timesport have suggested that Luqman forms Malaysia’s new three-man attack with the established Safawi Rasid and Akhyar Rashid.
Though an admirer of Luqman’s skill, Cheng Hoe feels that the Mokhtar Dahari Academy trainee is not the finished article yet. And the coach would rather see Luqman making a more natural progression to be at the top of his game.
“Luqman has very good technique, his finishing looks sharp and he is very composed in front of goal,” Cheng Hoe said yesterday.
“He definitely has a great future and the potential to be part of the national team.
“Luqman should keep working hard and not feel that he has already achieved something. Because, it’s just the first step for him.
“We ’ll see how he performs but I prefer to see him playing Under-23 football first. Of course if he plays well there (U23), we can include him (for the senior team).
“At the moment he needs to be exposed to Under-23 level. If anything, we still can call him for (national senior) training but he needs to focus step-by-step first.”
The AFF Under-18 tournament saw Luqman in stellar form for Malaysia, grabbing four goals along the way to help the Young Tigers reach the final.
Luqman, who won the Golden Boot last year (with five goals) in the AFF Under-16 Championship, has shown that he relishes the big moments.
A fast and direct player, Luqman relishes running at defenders and using his great pace to devastating effect.
Cheng Hoe believes that Luqman has all the right attributes to reach the highest level but he hopes to see the striker develops more variations in his game.
“Luqman needs to improve in teamwork. He has the individual talent to take on players but he cannot be doing that in the whole 90 minutes,” Cheng Hoe said.
“Once the opponents know the way he’s playing, it will be difficult for him. We saw in the final against Australia that he, alone, cannot do much... he cannot be dribbling past three or four players.
“Yes, he is very exciting. You can see that he has the quality and a good sense of scoring goals. It is important for a striker to have that instinct.
“At the moment, technically he’s at a different level to others of his age group.”
The 2022 World Cup/2023 Asian Cup qualifiers may come too soon for Luqman as Malaysia will kick off their campaign on Sept 5 against Indonesia before meeting the United Arab Emirates on Sept 10.
But if Luqman continues to hone his game, Malaysia will soon once again have a great striker to be feared with.
Luqman said he was not really satisfied with his performance in the AFF Under-18, because he couldn’t help Malaysia win the title.
“I hope we will do better in the AFC Under19 Championship qualifiers (in Cambodia on Nov 2-10),” he said.