THE FA of Malaysia (FAM) should go back to the drawing board and revisit their grassroots structure.
This is the view of Football Coaches Association of Malaysia (FCAM) president B. Satiananthan following Malaysia's poor performances against Jordan and Uzbekistan in recent friendly matches in Amman.
Harimau Malaya, who were without some of their best players, were thrashed 4-0 by world No 93 Jordan and 5-1 by world No 84 Uzbekistan.
Satiananthan said the players in Amman just did not have the basics to challenge their higher-ranked opponents.
"Malaysia hardly had shots on target against their opponents. They were struggling to string decent passes against them," said Satiananthan yesterday.
"The Jordanian players are fast, well-built and technically very good. They have what it takes to play high-level football. They knew when to press and control the tempo against Malaysia.
"Our players could not stop them despite having numbers in defence. They just could not cope with Jordan's game. It is a reality check and shows we need to do something about our grassroots programmes.
"I am not just talking about the Mokhtar Dahari Academy. It should be holistic changes. Jordan and Uzbekistan are in a different league, despite them being Asian teams."
However, Satiananthan believes Harimau Malaya have good players to make inroads in Asia.
"The Amman trip was nothing more than to identify new players to strengthen the national team. National coach Tan Cheng Hoe has probably identified a few players from this trip for the AFF Cup.
"It is a good decision by Cheng Hoe to test new players. I was impressed with forward Faisal Halim and defender Rizal Ghazali, who both did well in Amman. Faisal is daring while Rizal is a very strong defender," he added.