Thailand Coach Mano Polking Highlight 4 Hazardous In The Indonesian Squad

Thailand coach Alexandre Polking (screenshot of press conference session)

JAKARTA Thailand's national team coach Alexandre 'Mano' Polking highlighted four Indonesian players who were considered dangerous ahead of the 2022 AFF Cup group stage clashes.

Indonesia and Thailand will meet in the third match of Group A at the Gelora Bung Karno (SUGBK) Main Stadium on Thursday, December 29 tomorrow. Kick off the match starts at 16.30 WIB.

Despite the confidence of winning, Polking does not want to rule out the quality of young players and rich players with experience who are currently in Shin Tae Yong's squad.

"Indonesia has many young players, their speed is good and their fighting spirit is good. This team has two full-backs who always help attack," Polking said at a press conference, Wednesday, December 28.

"There is Jordi [Amat] now who can divide the ball from behind. There is Marselino [Ferdinan] as the best young player. There are two defensive midfielders who are also good. Witan Sulaeman is good at the winger, Egy Maulana Vikri too," he added.

Apart from being aware of these names, Polking also heeded Shin Tae Yong's whereabouts as a tactician. The reason is, this Korean coach has good international flying hours.

For him, Shin is one of the coaches to fear because he once brought the Korean national team to beat Germany in the 2018 World Cup group phase which took place in Russia.

"This is a very organized team, with a good coach, but we are ready to face it. We have quality and I hope the match will be a good match," he said.

On paper, Indonesia has an unpleasant record every time it meets Thailand in the AFF Cup. In total of the 14 meetings that took place in that event, Garuda only won twice, lost nine, and drew three times.

In addition, Shin Tae Yong's record against the War Elephant team is still so gloomy. He is noted to have not won from four meetings since he became coach of the Indonesian national team (two draws and two defeats).

Both teams will play this match after winning both in the previous two group stage matches. The results that made them control the top two positions in the standings.