KUALA LUMPUR: Sports analyst Datuk Dr Pekan Ramli believes Malaysia should drop underperforming naturalised players and settle on a first eleven before resuming their World Cup qualifying campaign in March.
Pekan said the chopping and changing of players and tactics during the AFC Asian Cup in Qatar recently did not help the national team's performances.
National coach Kim Pan Gon named 14 naturalised players, including heritage and foreign-born players, in his squad for the Asian Cup.
"I think the majority of the Asian Cup squad should be retained for the World Cup qualifiers," said Pekan when contacted yesterday.
"However, there are a number of naturalised players who failed to make an impact. These players should be replaced.
"Naturalised players have to impress, if they can do this, the fans will accept them and nobody will question their inclusion in the team.
"Pan Gon has time left on his contract and still has work to do. There is still a lot of room for improvement.
"Hopefully we can really decide on our first 11 before we face Oman (in World Cup qualifiers) and find a strategy which is suitable for the physique and abilities of our players.
"We lacked consistency in terms of tactics and playing style at the Asian Cup and it showed. One minute we were playing long balls and were short passing the next, our players were not able to settle into a rhythm."
Respected M-League coach Irfan Bakti Abu Salim echoed Pekan's sentiments.
"We have to select our naturalised players carefully. We really need to go for quality," said Irfan.
"We don't have to call them up for each position on the pitch.
"We have good local players in a number of positions and we can depend on them for those positions."
Harimau Malaya's next major assignment will be the second round (Asia) of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers which resumes in March.
The squad will face Oman on March 21 (away) and March 26 (home) followed by an away match against Kyrgyzstan (June 6) and Taiwan at home (June 11).
