Equal strength: JDT’s Fernando Forestieri (left) in action with Pahang’s Nicholas Swirad during their Super League match last month. — Bernama
PETALING JAYA: The Elephants’ coach Christophe Gamel has a jumbo task at hand to fix his dodgy defence and boost his suspect strikeforce during the Super League break.
For that, Pahang have been active during the transfer window, signing up some new players whom they have not announced.
But it is learnt that they have snapped up Colombian striker Steven Rodriguez, Filipino midfielder Kevin Ingreso and Uzbekistani centreback Sherzod Fayziyev. The three will stand in for Jordanian striker Mahmoud Zatara, Laotian playmaker Billy Ketkeophomphone and French centreback Johan Martial.
Gamel is relieved that he has some time during the break to work with the new players before the Super League resumes.
“There’s a big challenge ahead. Fortunately, we have time to help the new players settle in the team. Martial is out due to numerous injuries, while Billy is also injured,’’ said the Frenchman.
“We have a couple of areas to improve on if we want to do better. The main one is strengthening our defence and second is to work on our strikers’ finishing.
‘’We also hope the injured players will recover soon.”
Pahang are seventh in the Super League with eight points as they suffered four defeats, won only two games and drew twice.
Gamel also revealed that it had been a challenge for him as a coach in the Super League as he had to assimilate new ways of training and also understand the Malaysian culture better.
“Understanding how things work in Malaysian football and adjusting my way of training due to the culture have made it very challenging.
‘’But it’s also an amazing experience, especially when we drew 2-2 with JDT! (Johor Darul Ta’zim).
