Shin Tae-yong Chooses Pratama Arhan To The Indonesian National Team Even Though He Has Few Minutes To Play At The Club

Pratama Arhan remains Shin Tae-yong's choice in the Indonesian national team (Instagram/@pratamarhan8).

JAKARTA - Pratama Arhan is included in the list of players called Shin Tae-yong to participate in the training camp (TC) in preparation for the 2023 Asian Cup.

The decision to include Arhan had caused pros and cons given the few playing minutes at his club.

Arhan is an abroad player who plays in Tokyo Verdy. However, he rarely gets minutes to play. However, Shin Tae-yong still entrusted Arhan to the Garuda Squad.

The decision to include Arhan, whose playing minutes were a little, turned out to be Shin Tae-yong's strategy. The coach deliberately did that because he wanted to keep the player's performance from 'dead'.

Pratama Arhan is a good player. If he gets a minute to play at his club then his performance can be even better than now," said Shin Tae-yong about Pratama Arhan when met in the Central Jakarta area on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, WIB night.

"That's why (playing a little bit), Arhan's performance is getting lower. If the Indonesian national team does not choose him then his performance will really die, we don't want that to happen," continued the coach.

For that reason, Shin Tae-yong had a strong reason to include the player from Blora, Central Java, in his squad.

For the South Korean coach, bringing Arhan into a way to save the full-back's career.

"So, I deliberately chose him (Arhan Pratama) for the future of Indonesian football too. Moreover, Arhan's advantage is long ball throw in, this is a very scary weapon for opponents," explained Shin Tae-yong.

Apart from the few playing minutes with Tokyo Verdy, Pratama Arhan has indeed become a player who has almost never missed a summons to the Indonesian national team for a number of agendas.

Together with the Indonesian national team, his performance is quite good. Moreover, Arhan has advantages in terms of speed, acceleration, and has long-distance throws.