Jelius plays down talk of bust-up
Published on: Thursday, September 21, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Coach Jelius Ating played down talk of a bust-up between him and Korean Lee Gil Hoon during the team's 5-1 thrashing of Perlis in the Premier League tie at the Likas Stadium on Tuesday night.The three-goal hero was seen having an exchange of words with Jelius after Perlis' goal before he went on to score a hat-trick."All is well and there were no serious issues at all. I was only trying to remind him to keep the ball and don't lose it unnecessary. He may have heard it wrongly that resulted in him acting differently.
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"I told him then that I was willing to take him out if he is unhappy to play and I am glad that he chose to stay and proved to me and the team with the goals scored."He also came straight to me after his first goal and apologised to me. In fact, I did not hold any grudges against him and we had a good one to one chat again after the game." The former Youth Cup coach stressed he will not compromise with any players in the team. "I tried my best to be a fair coach. Anybody, and even world class players, can make mistakes.
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It is up to the coach to remind them for the sake of the team and I want the players to understand that"Meanwhile, Jelius was happy with the team's performance.
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"It was definitely the best performance from the players since I took over the team. I could see a big improvement."The new 3-5-2 formation also proved to be well executed. We had the 4-2-3-1 before this that had also done well for us but I think the match last night proved that the players were better suited to this new system."We created more chances and able to score more goals as well, whereas the old formation, we found it hard to find the net even though defensively we were fine."However, despite the praises, he said there is still room for improvement with the new system."With the 3-5-2, the midfielders need to be very fit, especially the two flanks. They have to be able to run up and down helping out on attacks and defence."I think we were a bit weak on that but we will work to improve that and also the players were unable to capitalise on their superiority after they went three-goal up."They were unable to focus and the lapsed of concentration cost us the goal which we need to rectify as well."Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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