Singapore football isn’t so strong as I thought - Stange

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http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/news/stange-laments-lack-quality-vows-press-010000093--spt.html

It has not been a pretty picture for Singapore on the international stage recently.

• The senior side were trounced 6-1 by China, lost 1-0 to Hong Kong and also lost 2-0 at home to Oman in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers prior
• The U23s suffered three defeats in a row at the Merdeka Cup
• The U19s crashed out of the AFF U19 Championship group stages in Indonesia

If it wasn't clear before that there is a lot of work to do before they can even dream about dining at the same table with Asia's elite.

Lions coach Bernd Stange has singled out a lack of quality and depth as a key problem, especially evident with the U23s, who were missing national team regulars like Izwan Mahbud, Hariss Harun and Safuwan Baharudin as they were away with the Lions.

"It’s a lot to do for all of us and we cannot have all these excuses that there are five players missing, the key players are with the national team. The national team is the national team and that is the second draw, and we have to prepare them for international football."

Singapore's woes are strikingly acute upfront and Stange explained, "If you play possession, if you keep the ball, finally (in the end) you need a striker who can make it - the final touch, a goal."

"Do you see these strikers in our S.League? All these main positions of goalkeepers, central defenders, playmakers and strikers are in the end all foreigners. The best two strikers in the S.League are Indra [Sahdan] and Qiu Li, but they are elderly players."

The Lions' next task is a third Asian Cup qualifier against Syria at home, having already lost the first two. Stange is adamant they can win.