The 2021 domestic season has officially ended with the TM Piala Malaysia final played on Tuesday evening, and it has been a season of ups and downs for the Red Giants.

With the club now undergoing the off-season, it is an appropriate time to look back and reflect on the achievements recorded this season.

The Selangor FC first team played in two competitions in 2021; the Malaysia Super League and the Malaysia Cup. We ended the league campaign in fifth place with a total of 36 points from 22 matches (10 wins, 6 draws, 6 defeats). In our cup run, we ended the group stage as Group B runners up (12 points from 6 matches), before crashing out of the quarter-finals at the hands of eventual champions Kuala Lumpur City.

Altogether, the first team played in 30 matches all season, winning in 14 (46.67 per cent) of them, tied in 6 and losing in 10. They also recorded 5 clean sheets; 4 in the league and 1 in the cup competition.

In total, the first team netted 57 competitive goals in 2021 for an average of 1.9 goals per match, and conceded 41. Their longest winning streak is for four matches, while their longest unbeaten streak is for five encounters.

Curiously, this season saw the Red Giants first team having a better record on the road than at home. We won 5 times at home and 9 away encounters, and lost in 7 home matches and 3 away encounters.

The reserve team meanwhile ended the Malaysia Premier League campaign in ninth place, but played in no other competition due to the cancellation of this year's Challenge Cup. We recorded 5 wins, 9 draws and 6 defeats out of a total of 20 encounters.

On the individual front, 33 players made at least one appearance with the Selangor FC first team, and 34 with the reserve team, with 13 having appeared for both teams this season.

This year saw the club hand 10 young players promoted from the reserve team, their first team debuts. Three of them even became regular first team players; Jordan Ayimbila (24 appearances), and Sharul Nazeem and Hein Htet Aung (19 each). This is on top of the young players who had made their debuts in the previous season and are also regular first team members now, such as Aliff Haiqal (24 matches this year), Danial Asri (28) and Mukhairi Ajmal (23).

Of the 33 who have played for the Selangor FC first team this season, five have reached either the 50th or 100th game milestone this season. This year, goalkeeper Khairulazhan Khalid and former defender Syahmi Safari both joined the Selangor FC century club. In the meantime, Sarkunan Krishnasamy, Ifedayo Olusegun and Namathevan Arunasalam all played their 50th game in a Selangor shirt.

Ifedayo will no longer be at the club next season, but he has been an integral member of the club this year. Of the 28 goals he scored in 2021, 26 of them came in the league, and he won the Super League golden boot award for this achievement. More impressively, it was his second Super League golden boot in a row, and the 26 goal tally made him the player with the most goals in a Super League season in the competition's history. The club wishes him the best in his future endeavours.

Ghanaian forward George Attram meanwhile found himself as the reserve team top scorer with 9 goals in total.

This season has been an underwhelming one for the first team, as admitted by the club's Sporting Director, Michael Feichtenbeiner himself in an earlier interview. Changes have already been planned on the coaching staff and the first team, including Michael's appointment to the first team head coach post. He now plans to field a more attacking first team in the coming season.

"...My first goal is to entertain our fans. If they're excited to see a good game, it counts as a success to me as a coach. And as a coach my priority is on scoring, instead of defending and waiting to take advantage of a mistake to win 1-0. I want to attack from the beginning, because we have a reputation to maintain and are almost always the favourite team going into a match. We must be proud to be Selangor FC, and we must attack and score as many goals as possible."

While the 2021 season was far from an ideal one for the Red Giants, supporters can expect efforts of improvements beginning from now. More roster changes, appointments and club updates will be announced in the coming weeks, as the club seeks to usher in a more successful season next year.

'Demi Kebanggaan'

By Zulhilmi Zainal