NOBODY fancied them last season, but Malaysia Cup champions Kuala Lumpur cannot expect to fly under the radar this year when they are set to become a marked team.
Bojan Hodak's side will have a target on their backs after surprising everyone with their barnstorming run through the Malaysia Cup, capping an 11-game unbeaten run by beating favourites Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) 2-0 in the final.
It was not just lifting the trophy after 32 years that surprised many but also the way Hodak set up his side to be difficult to beat thanks to a sturdy defence, an unbeatable goalkeeper in Kevin Mendoza and a makeshift striker, who could not stop scoring, in Romel Morales.
Hodak expects his Super League rivals to be wiser to the threat posed by KL this season, but fans of the city side can bank on the wily 50-year-old Croatian to have a few more tricks up his sleeve.
"Things will change because last season nobody took us seriously. This season will be tougher for us," said Hodak, named best coach at the 2021 National Football Awards.
"Tactics can change at the end of the day, but you have your style of playing, and you need to push that forward.
"Still we are not at a level to challenge teams in the league like JDT, Kedah, Selangor or Terengganu, who have bigger squads and budgets.
"We can still surprise everybody, but our problem will be when we are the favourites in a match. But in the cup competitions, we can always surprise because with two or three good games, you can go quite far."
KL will be competing on four fronts this season, including the return of the FA Cup alongside making their AFC Cup debut, their first foray into Asia since a quarter-final run to the 1994 Asian Cup Winners' Cup.
To that end, Hodak has recruited six players, including a French striker, who is expected to be signed this week, defenders Declan Lambert, Muhammad Mohd Faudzi, Nabil Hakim Bokhari and Nik Umar Nik Aziz, and goalkeeper Azri Ghani.
But KL's start to pre-season has not been smooth-sailing with injuries depriving Hodak of defenders Irfan Zakaria, who has just returned to non-contact training, and Nik Shahrul Azim Halim, and young winger Izreen Izwandy, ruled out for the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in training.
Left-back Daniel Ting has also chosen not to return to KL for personal reasons despite having a year remaining on his contract, although young midfielder Ridhwan Nazri is back after missing all of last season with an ACL injury.
There were also several changes on the coaching staff, with Goran Rosanda arriving from Hajduk Split as assistant head coach to replace Nenad Bacina, who has returned to Croatia to attend to family matters.
Also joining are strength and conditioning coach Miro Petric, who has worked with Hodak at Kelantan and JDT, and Shukor Adan, appointed assistant coach after retiring as a player.
"Last year, we did not use many players, and there were those who did not get many minutes," said Hodak, who also had to deal with long-term injuries to foreign strikers Dominique Da Sylva and Kyrian Nwabueze.
"This year, we have more depth to face four competitions.
"Nabil and Declan give us strength on the left side which we didn't have last year when we only had Daniel. The foreign striker should have no issues fitness-wise once he's out of quarantine."
Trying to top what they did last year would be difficult for anyone but Hodak is not fazed by the pressure.
"When we started last year, nobody would have believed what was going to happen," said Hodak, whose Malaysia Cup win last year was his sixth major trophy in Malaysian football.
'We are a bit ahead in terms of results, so our focus is on building the infrastructure at the club. We have proved we can be competitive even with much less money than other teams.
"But I don't think there will be any more pressure. If results are bad, people will complain, but this is normal. We just have to be realistic."