PETALING JAYA: No team captain or playmaker in the Super League, it appears, has been busier than Kuala Lumpur’s Paulo Josue (pic).
The Brazilian is an ever present in Bojan Hodak’s outfit due to his set-piece expertise, creativity and excellent ball distribution.
But this season is becoming quite a stretch for Josue. In KL’s six matches so far, he has had to feed the likes of a variety of different attackers like wingers J. Partiban, T. Saravanan and Sean Gan Gianelli, and strikers Patrick Reichelt, Romel Morales, Herlison Caion and Tchetche Kipre.
It’s a complicated situation that has been reflected in the City Boys’ results – they only registered their first win in their sixth match, a 2-0 win over Sabah.
Josue, however, is taking the challenge in his stride and believes that KL have finally woken up after their first win.
And they intend to build on that with another win over Perak at the Cheras Football Stadium today.
“There are a lot of attacking players in the team now, all different from each other. It’s a bit hard for the new players to adapt to Bojan’s (Hodak) system but they’re trying,’’ said Josue.
“For me, it’s also a challenge as I’m playing with players of different characters and styles. Everyone in the team, whether they play 90, 60 or 45 minutes, must do well and support each other. With lots of attackers, the coach has more options and that can only be good for the long run.’’
Josue added that KL’s earlier struggles are no indication of the team’s true potential as they target their second win against Perak.
‘’Now that we’ve got our first win, things should go a little smoother. We’re facing a young Perak team who run a lot and have the energy to press for long periods. We know how they play and should be prepared for it.’’
