PETALING JAYA: Perak captain and midfielder Luciano Guaycochea is raving over the quality of the new players in the team.
The Argentine was impressed with the energy levels shown by his new teammates, both local and foreign, in a training session as they prepare for the 2024-2025 Super League season.
And Guaycochea believes that the stiff competition among the many talented players for regular spots will also make the team much stronger this year.
In the middle department, Guaycochea has an able new partner in Kyrgyzstan Under-23 captain Adilet Kanybekov, one of the new imports snapped up by Perak coach Yusri Che Lah.
The Seladang have also signed leftback Tommy Mawat Bada, strikers Harith Akif Sahar and Nur Azfar Zikri, goalkeepers Ramadhan Abd Hamid, Firdaus Irman Fadhil and Haziq Nadzli, Brazilian centreback Luiz Motta and South Korean winger Lee Tae-min.
The other midfielders besides Guaycochea and Kanybekov are Syukri Baharun, Nigerian enforcer Sunday Afolabi, Khairul Asyraf Ramli, Serbian playmaker Luka Milunovic, Wan Zack Haikal Wan Noor, Fadhil Idris, Faris Izdiham, Azalinullah Alias and Firdaus Saiyadi.
“It’s good to see many new faces who can really strengthen our team. The players have all shown good quality during training,” said Guaycochea.
“We played a friendly last Saturday against Geylang International (Perak won 3-0) and you could see all the players are eager to show they have what it takes to start for the team.
“That creates healthy competition for starting spots in the team. Now, we have to work on building a solid unit where every player puts the team first and works towards achieving our objectives.’’
Guaycochea has also made it a priority to ensure that Perak do much better than last season where they finished 11th out of 14 teams and were knocked out of the FA Cup in the first round last year.
Perak, however, managed to reach the semi-finals of the Malaysia Cup.
“Our aim this season is to be among the top six teams in the Super League. We had a good Malaysia Cup run last year and we must try to keep that up.’’
