Hong Kong coach Kenny Lai Sun-cheung has insisted on taking two teenage strikers in his squad for their opening World Cup qualifier in Malaysia next Wednesday.
Lai has drafted in Kitchee's 18-year-old centre-forward Chan Siu-ki and South China's Leung Tsz-chun, also 18, for the trip to Kuantan in Pahang.
'You play 11 players. You change up to three and 16 players are enough,' he said. 'The others need to be ones with good talent and a good future. We need to let them learn. In the future we need young strikers.'
At 1.85 metres and 72 kilograms, Chan Siu-ki is unusually well built by the normal standards of Cantonese strikers, a late bloomer who, until his inclusion in December's Hong Kong-Guangdong Cup squad, had not represented Hong Kong at any level.
'Chan is a big boy and a very good header,' said Lai. 'His attitude is OK. Every match for Kitchee he plays hard, but his control and dribbling aren't quite good enough. He needs to learn more about these skills.
'Until last year he'd only played district football for Tai Po in the third division. I think if we let him join the team, probably only to sit on the bench and train, he will get more confident and get ideas about how to train at a higher level of the game.'
