KUALA LUMPUR: Playing "beautiful football" is not part of Harimau Malaya's plan when they face Solomon Islands in a friendly at Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Kuala Terengganu tomorrow.
National coach Kim Pan-gon wants his players to be effective instead of playing beautiful football.
It is part of Pan Gon's experiment to prepare his players for the Asian Cup in Qatar next year.
Although Harimau Malaya fans may not like Kim's latest move, the South Korean believes being effective and efficient will help his team grind out results against strong teams.
"We have a clear goal ahead of the Asian Cup. Our opponents in Qatar will have quality, and we cannot afford to play beautiful football in every match just to satisfy everyone.
"We have to be smart and be effective to win matches," said Kim in today's pre-match conference in Kuala Terengganu.
"I know people want us to play entertaining football, but this cannot happen against strong teams.
"We will do our best to keep winning at home."
Negri Sembilan striker Shahrel Fikri Fauzi will likely lead Malaysia's strikeforce against world No. 134 Solomon Islands tomorrow.
"We want to try out other strikers in the league as we need options. I will be excited if Shahrel does well as we will have another weapon."
Darren Lok and Syafiq Ahmad are Malaysia's regular strikers.
"It is our first ever game against Solomon Islands. We only had three days of training this time, but the sessions were good," Kim added.
World No. 138 Malaysia have only lost one game this season against Thailand in the AFF Cup semi-finals in Bangkok.
In March, Harimau Malaya defeated Turkmenistan 1-0 and Hong Kong 2-0 in friendlies in Johor Baru.
Defender Matthew Davies said the team hope maintain their winning momentum against Solomon Islands.
"It is important to play higher-ranked teams like Solomon Islands to prepare for bigger assignments.
"We have to be cautious, play to tactics and convert our chances," said Davies.