Former Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac gets his first taste of Thai Catch-22

Milovan Rajevac seems to have landed in trouble from the very onset of his reign as coach of the Thai national team.

His first match in charge of the War Elephants will be a friendly in Uzbekistan on June 13 in Bangkok.

The problem concerning his first match as Thailand coach is Muang Thong players could be exhausted as they have to play in both Thai League 1 and the AFC Champions League.

There are growing fears that if Muang Thong players undertake the Tashkent trip, it could affect their performance in the World Cup qualifier against the UAE.

Muang Thong had six or seven players spread over different departments of the starting 11 of the national team under previous coach Kiatisak Senamuang.

They included goalkeeper Kawin Thamsatchanan, defenders Theerathon Bumnathan, Peerapat Notechaiya and Tristan Do, midfielder Chanathip Songkrasin and forward Teerasil Dangda.

Rajevac said he was impressed by Teerasil, Chanathip, Theerathon and Peerapat after he watched Muang Thong play in a recent Thai League 1 match.

According to Football Association of Thailand president Somyot Poompunmuang, Rajevac insists that all players should fly to Tashkent as he wants to study his players.

Somyot quoted Rajevac as saying that some Muang Thong players may play only 20 minutes in the Ubzekistan match.

Rajevac has previously coached the national sides of Ghana, Qatar and Algeria as well as several clubs so he should know something about managing a football team.

Although results-wise the friendly with Uzbekistan and the game against the UAE are meaningless fixtures as Thailand are out of contention for a ticket to the 2018 World Cup finals, the Serb will surely...

Without Muang Thong players, he would probably see nothing about the national team ahead of the UAE match, which will be his first competitive game as coach of Thailand.

To solve the problem, Somyot said the FAT may use a charter flight to fly the team directly to Uzbekistan which will take about six hours from Bangkok.

According to the FAT boss, it will take about 15-18 hours from Thailand to Uzbekistan on a commercial flight with a stopover in Malaysia or Moscow.

One may wonder why the FAT chose to play a warm-up match in Uzbekistan with a World Cup qualifier just days away.

The match was arranged before Thailand began their campaign in Group B of Asia's final qualifying round for the 2018 World Cup.

Somyot said Uzbekistan were chosen because they have a similar playing style like Thailand's opponents in Group B, which also includes Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Playing a top Asian team like Uzbekistan is good -- at least it is better than in the past when Thailand could not find a strong side to play with them in a friendly and had to play minnows or a team of...

But whether Uzbekistan play like those five teams is another matter.

Somyot says it was Thailand's previous coach who picked the Uzbeks. No matter who initiated the friendly with Uzbekistan, Rajevac should be allowed to make a decision whether he wants Muang Thong players to travel to Tashkent or not.

Before Rajevac arrived in Thailand earlier this month, FAT technical chief Witthaya Laohakul said Rajevac would be given a free hand in selecting his players and managing the squad. FAT bosses should honour the promise so that, if the things go wrong, they at least can point their finger at the coach.

Source: Bangkokpost