KUALA LUMPUR: Some critics say that bringing the world's best football coach here won't help the national team. And not even Pep Guardiola can transform Harimau Malaya.
The problem lies with the poor quality of the national players, not the coach, that's the belief.
Football legend Datuk Jamal Nasir, who helped Malaysia qualify for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, also feels the same.
He contended that changing the coach won't bring much improvement to the national team if there is no change in players.
Jamal made known his view after Malaysia were thrashed 4-0 by New Zealand in a friendly match at the North Harbour Stadium in Auckland on Monday.
Interim coach Pau Marti Vicente's hopes of managing Harimau Malaya full time may have taken a dent following the heavy loss to the Kiwis.
The Spaniard was "promoted" to take charge of the senior team following the abrupt resignation of South Korean Kim Pan Gon in July. Vicente's first assignment saw him guiding Malaysia to the Merdeka Tournament title with wins over the Philippines (2-1) and Lebanon (1-0), last month.
Though the FA of Malaysia has given Vicente until December to impress them, his stock may have gone down after the New Zealand match.
"We cannot rush into changing the coach. We need to look at the coaches available in the market. We need to get a coach who's familiar with Malaysian football culture.
"The biggest issue here is the quality of the players we have for the national team. The lack of quality players in the M-League who can play at international level is a concern.
"We have been relying on naturalised players and they are not bringing in a positive impact to the team consistently. The issue is that the M-League is not producing quality players for the national team. The league is not competitive and players are lacking calibre."
So, even if FAM brought in a master, he would not have the tools to shape the national team into Asian class.
Malaysia need to improve their world ranking to get a favourable draw for the third qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Cup. The draw for the qualifiers will be held in December.
Jamal is concerned that bad planning by FAM could jeopardise the team, and there is a likelihood of the new coach quitting Harimau Malaya if he sees no hope of success.
"Pan Gon left the team probably because he knows he cannot get anything more from them and this could happen again with the new coach," said Jamal.
"We have two more months until December and after that another three months for the Asian Cup qualifiers. FAM needs to study the situation well before hiring a new coach.
"Rushing into getting a new coach can be disastrous and again the coach can list only 23 players, and this is what we need to improve. I see that a few national players are stagnating... for me this is a sad thing to see."